Here is the morning update from New Jersey's arts newswire. We regularly publish between 8-15 new articles and news reports each day. Nobody covers the Arts throughout the Garden State like New Jersey Stage!
If your arts organization sends out press releases, make sure you have info@newjerseystage.com on your media list for coverage.
theatre
South Street Players to Hold Auditions for "God of Carnage" (SPRING LAKE, NJ) -- South Street Players will hold auditions for "God of Carnage" by Yasmina Reza (translation by Christopher Hampton) at Wesley Hall in Spring Lake. Auditions take place Thursday, December 1st at 6:30pm and Sunday, December 4th at 2:00pm.
The Million Dollar Quartet Is Joined by Santa for a 1950s Rock 'N Roll Blast On December 4, 1956, music producer Sam Phillips, head of Sun Records in Memphis, got singers Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins into his studio for a jam session. He recorded the session and played it for visitors for years. It was finally turned into a Broadway musical, The Million Dollar Quartet, in 2010. The smash musical has now pulled Santa in from his sleigh and become The Million Dollar Quartet Christmas. The play opened Friday, November 18 at the Bucks County Playhouse, across the Delaware River from New Jersey in New Hope, Pennsylvania and will run through January 1, 2023.
Crossroads Theatre presents "Chicken & Biscuits" (NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Crossroads Theatre presents Chicken & Biscuits, a comedy written by Douglas Lyons and directed by Lynda Gravátt. The hilarious play will celebrate its Opening Night on Wednesday, December 21st, for a limited engagement through Tuesday, December 31, 2022. Performances take place in the Arthur Laurents Theater inside the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.
"A Tomato Can't Grow in the Bronx" Goes From Freehold To NY (NEW YORK, NY) -- A Tomato Can't Grow in the Bronx, an acclaimed drama by playwright/novelist Gary Morgenstein, opens at the Chain Theater in New York City on Friday, December 2nd for a limited engagement through December 17th. The play premiered at Center Playhouse on South Street in downtown Freehold, NJ, in April, 2022. Center Players’ Artistic Director Bernice Garfield-Szita will once again direct the play, which was named “Best Original Play” at the 2022 Perry Awards by the NJ Association of Community Theaters (NJACT).
PHOTOS from "American Son" at The Barn Theatre (MONTVILLE, NJ) -- The Barn Theatre is presenting American Son from November 18th through December 4th. In the play, an estranged interracial couple must confront their feelings about race and bias after their son is detained by the local police following a traffic stop incident. Their disparate histories and backgrounds inform their assumptions as they try to find out what happened to their son. Photographer John Posada was on hand to take photos.
music
Ocean Casino Resort presents Elvis Costello & The Imposters (ATLANTIC CITY, NJ) -- Ocean Casino Resort presents Elvis Costello & The Imposters on Saturday, February 25, 2023 in Ovation Hall. The concert begins at 8:00pm. Doors open at 7:00pm.
"Absolutely Transcendent!" Linda Eder LIVE! at BergenPAC It’s nearly 80 degrees in Englewood, NJ, this warm November 6, 2022 evening as music lovers enter BergenPAC’s gleaming new lobby for a heartfelt evening of music by Broadway actress and recording star Linda Eder.
Mercer County Community College Jazz Band Hits Mercer-Area Hot Spots to Spread Jazzy Sounds of the Season (WEST WINDSOR, NJ) -- Get into the holiday spirit and come out to see the Mercer County Community College (MCCC) Jazz Band perform the sounds of the season. Admission is free!
Brook Arts Center presents Chris Ruggiero's Christmas Show (BOUND BROOK, NJ) -- The Brook Arts Center presents Singer and PBS-TV star Chris Ruggiero’s Christmas Show on December 16 at 8:00pm features songs from his just-released holiday LP Christmas With Chris Ruggiero such as “Sleigh Ride,” “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” as well as songs from his four albums, all delivered in Chris’s own classic style.
State Theatre presents STOMP (NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- State Theatre New Jersey presents the international percussion sensation STOMP for three performances on Friday, December 2 at 8:00pm and Saturday, December 3 at 2:00pm & 8:00pm. Tickets range from $40-$98. Ticket buyers can save 15% on tickets as part of the STOMP OUT HUNGER Food Drive. From its beginnings as a street performance in the UK, STOMP has grown into an international sensation over the past 25 years, having performed in more than 50 countries and in front of more than 24 million people.
Tony Nominated Callaway Sisters Come To SOPAC (SOUTH ORANGE, NJ) -- The Tony-nominated Callaway sisters are raising the roof with their new show “Broadway the Calla-way!” Liz and Ann Hampton Callaway are one singular sensation. They’ll sing showstoppers from West Side Story, Chicago, Funny Girl, Cats, Carousel, Wicked and more Broadway shows. The show comes to South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) on Saturday, December 10, 2022. Showtime is 8:00pm.
Ferocious Designs Releases "You and Me Against the World" Ferocious Designs, the music project of central New Jersey-based songwriter Brian Kelley, has released an updated version of “You and Me Against the World” as a single. The track is available for download/streaming at FerociousDesigns.com.
Makin Waves Song of the Week: "UR My Best Friend" by Chico Romano Chico Romano, the artist formerly known as Professor Caveman, has a new EP, “Vol. 5,” featuring a series of vignettes exploring love amidst confusion, weaving together Motown funk, bedroom pop, Tropacália, ‘60s soul, and música popular brasileira into lean, emotional songwriting.
dance
PEAK Performances Presents the World Premiere of "The Night Falls" (MONTCLAIR, NJ) -- PEAK Performances at Montclair State University presents the world premiere of The Night Falls, choreographed and directed by Troy Schumacher (New York City Ballet and BalletCollective), with story and lyrics by Karen Russell (Swamplandia!, Vampires in the Lemon Grove), and music and lyrics by Ellis Ludwig-Leone (San Fermin), February 9–12, 2023. This interdisciplinary work created for nine dancers, eight singers, and a chamber music ensemble enmeshes opera, dance, and music theater to create a new myth within the dilapidated dreamscape of contemporary America.
community
Celebrate the Season with Holiday Shows at Grunin Center (TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts at Ocean County College has a delightful lineup of holiday shows and performances scheduled through the end of 2022. Tickets are selling fast, so be sure to reserve your seats soon!
bergenPAC Reopens with Sold-out Shows as Performing Arts School Shines Onstage (ENGLEWOOD, NJ) -- Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC) has welcomed thousands of patrons back to its newly renovated theater after reopening last month. Construction on the historic facility began in March, and the new season kicked off on October 12 with a packed auditorium for The Price is Right Live! tour. This month featured a string of sold-out shows when legendary crooners Johnny Mathis and Paul Anka returned to enchant patrons, followed by salsa icon Victor Manuelle, and rockers Air Supply and YES.
United Way of Greater Newark awarded funding to support small business education program (NEWARK, NJ) -- United Way of Greater Newark was awarded a $30,000 grant from Santander Bank to support technical assistance provided to small businesses through the Greater Newark Enterprises Corporation's BackStop Program.
Lewis Center for the Arts presents The Atelier@Large: Conversations on Art-making in a Vexed Era with Jonathan Majors (PRINCETON, NJ) -- Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts continues the AtelieratLarge conversation series that brings guest artists to campus to discuss the challenges they face in making art in the modern world. For the last event in the fall series, the rising Hollywood star and Emmy-nominated actor Jonathan Majors (The Last Black Man in San Francisco, HBO series Lovecraft Country, ABC miniseries When We Rise) joins in discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, Princeton’s Howard G.B. Clark ’21 University Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Princeton Atelier. The event begins at 7:30pm on Tuesday, November 29, in the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street on Princeton’s campus.
The Eternal Gandhi Peace Center and Museum Opens in Atlantic City (ATLANTIC CITY, NJ) /PRNewswire/ -- The Eternal Gandhi Peace Center and Museum located on North Arkansas Ave in Atlantic City, is the first museum in the United States dedicated to recounting Mahatma Gandhi's life. A project such as this was the dream of Mr. Bhadra Butala, the Founder and Grand Patron of the Gandhian Society of New Jersey and this was finally fulfilled in collaboration with the Aditya Birla Group and their Chairperson Mrs. Rajashree Birla. Her passion to remember the Mahatma has resulted in the Eternal Gandhi project spearheaded by Mr. Nitin Mathuria, the President of the Aditya Birla Group, with similar interactive museums across the world, in Delhi, Birmingham and Bhubaneswar, India. The museum will be managed by Atlantic City Youth Enrolled at Ideal Institute of Technology.
books
Actor Holly Taylor Helps Kean University Professor Launch Latest Book (UNION, NJ) -- Kean University Distinguished Professor Robin Landa’s 25th book was launched with celebrity cachet this month when her former student, Kean graduate and television star Holly Taylor hosted an Instagram Live session for her 109,000 followers.
How To Tell Your Story: An Intimate Talk and Writing Workshop with Doreen Oliver at Gallery Aferro (NEWARK, NJ) -- On Thursday, December 8th from 7:00pm – 9:00pm, 2019 Sustainable Arts Fellow Doreen Oliver and Gallery Aferro invite up to 10 participants of all experience levels to consider how to tell their story with an intimate talk and writing workshop. The event takes place in the Main Gallery at Gallery Aferro (73 Market Street) in Newark.
