Here's a look at the top 15 most read articles published at New Jersey Stage from December 22-28, 2024. Each week we publish about 70 articles, including several original columns and features, along with news releases for events happening throughout the state and nearby areas like Philadelphia and New York City. This week's top 15 includes articles from 4 counties in New Jersey (Essex, Monmouth, Morris, and Ocean) with ten of the fifteen articles being feature articles or columns.
Make sure your events are part of our weekly columns by sending press releases to us at [email protected]. Event previews are always one of the most popular areas of the website. Event previews get noticed when we first publish them and then get noticed again when they are brought back to the main area of the site the week the event takes place - sometimes even several months later. We also run weekly columns promoting events, music, and theatre shows taking place for the week. These columns include our featured event previews and event listings along with all of our event previews of the week. Your events can stand out for as low as $10! Many times, they are among the most read stories of the week. There is no cost for us to run your press releases!
1) "A Johnny Mathis Christmas" LIVE! at MPAC - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at MPAC in Morristown, NJ this Saturday December 7, 2024 evening as music lovers excitedly await a sold-out A Johnny Mathis Christmas concert by the legendary pop vocalist Johnny Mathis.
2) Events This Week in New Jersey from December 24-31, 2024 - Here is a look at upcoming events taking place from December 24-31, 2024 along with our featured listings. New Jersey Stage offers previews of events throughout the Garden State as well as select shows in New York City and Philadelphia areas.
3) The Town Hall presents Judy Collins and Friends: 85 Years of Music and Protest - (NEW YORK, NY) -- The legendary Judy Collins will present a star-studded 85th birthday celebration Judy Collins and Friends: 85 Years of Music and Protest at The Town Hall on March 8, 2025. Directed by Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Russ Titelman, Judy Collins will be joined onstage by her peers and some of the young talents she inspired and helped nurture. Showtime is 8:00pm.
4) Southside Johnny Announces Retirement from Touring; New Year's Eve Show is Cancelled - (RED BANK, NJ) -- Sad news for the Jersey Music Community. Southside Johnny announced he has retired from touring immediately, leading to the cancellation of this year's annual New Year's Eve performance at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank.
5) Rock On! This Week's Sound Bites...12/26/24 - A lesson I was taught more than 15 years ago was "Never write in the first person. Never say "I" or "Me" and for more than 14 years this space and this writer have abided by those rules; until now.
6) Makin Waves Dirty Jersey Dozen - Each year, Makin Waves picks the 12 independent New Jersey bands who made the most waves. That means extensive touring in support of a new LP or EP, preferably internationally; professional quality narrative videos; singles that garnered broadcast and online radio play (since Spotify rips artists off, I don't really care about streams); national press, and other awards. Note that the Dirty Jersey Dozen are presented in alphabetical order. To get a sense of pecking order, please check out the 26th Annual Makin Waves Awards, as well as the Makin Waves Top 10 Jersey Indie Albums and Makin Waves Top 10 Jersey Indie Songs.
7) Valerie Simpson LIVE! at SOPAC - Inside South Orange, NJ's SOPAC auditorium this Saturday, December 14, 2024 evening music lovers who know there ain't nothing like the real thing ready themselves for a live Valerie Simpson and Friends Sing Ashford and Simpson performance by singer/songwriter Valerie Simpson.
8) 26th Annual Makin Waves Awards - Makin Waves' annual holiday gift to the New Jersey music scene turns 26 this year with a bevy of goodness, particularly for top winners Jackson Pines, Rachel Ana Dobken, and Emerson Woolf, who each won two. And here we go...
9) Family Worth Fighting For: TJ Klune's Ocean County Library Virtual Author Talk - (TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- Discover the magic in family life with New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist TJ Klune. He'll take you inside the new installment of his "Cerulean Chronicles," Somewhere Beyond the Sea, during his Ocean County Library Virtual Author Talk on Wednesday, January 15, 2025. The event begins at 7:00pm.
10) New Release Review - "The Man In The White Van" - 1970s-set thriller The Man in the White Van purports to be inspired by real-life events. Some reviews have suggested it draws on the crimes of serial killer Billy Mansfield, though the villain's identity remains ambiguous throughout the film (likely to leave things open for a possible sequel). I suspect if director Warren Skeels were honest, he would admit to his primary influence being John Carpenter's Halloween. Like that classic, Skeel's narrative feature debut takes place in the final days of October and is centred on a virginal teenage girl being stalked by an antagonist who seems to have randomly chosen her as his target (let's not forget the sister/brother stuff didn't pop up until Halloween II). As the title implies, the villain here spends most of his screen time unseen behind the wheel of a white van, and the stalking scenes recall the early segments of Halloween in which Michael Myers pursues Laurie Strode while commandeering a stolen station wagon. The van becomes something of a villain itself, like the eponymous Plymouth Fury of Carpenter's Christine, the truck from Spielberg's Duel, or the car from, well, The Car. Were it not for a series of flashbacks, we might wonder if there really is a human driver behind that foggy windscreen.
11) Radio Tower or Espionage Center? "WSC Calling?" at the Ocean County Library Waretown Branch - (WARETOWN, NJ) -- The Tuckerton Wireless was a communications marvel at its inception in 1912. But it soon plunged the Jersey Shore into a web of international intrigue. Join historian Jeffrey Brown for "WSC Calling? The Tuckerton Wireless" at the Ocean County Library Waretown Branch on Saturday, January 18, 2025. The event begins at 12:00pm.
12) Makin Waves Top 10 Jersey Indie Songs - Here are the top 10 songs by New Jersey indie artists, according to Makin Waves.
13) Makin Waves Top 10 Jersey Indie Albums - Here are the top 10 albums by New Jersey indie artists for 2024, according to Makin Waves.
14) This Week in Music: Previews for Concerts from December 24-31, 2024 - Here is a look at upcoming shows taking place from December 24-31, 2024 along with our featured listings. New Jersey Stage offers previews of concerts throughout the Garden State as well as select shows in New York City and Philadelphia areas.
15) Celebrate New Year's Eve Experience on Saturday With Your Entire Family - Even The Little Ones - at The Growing Stage with a concert by Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could - (NETCONG, NJ) -- Want to share the New Year's Eve celebration experience with the little ones, but know they can't stay up that late? New Year's Eve arrives a few days early at The Growing Stage with a musical celebration on Saturday, December 28th featuring dancing, sing-alongs and a special countdown to 2025 at NOON! Join them as they welcome Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could for a New Year's Eve Countdown Concert your family will never forget!
Want your events to stand out? Check out our ad rates which start at just $50 for an entire month of targeted advertising and includes events listed in our online calendar. Or you can have your events listed in the calendar for $10 per event (shows with multiple performances get every show listed for just $10). Either way your events will be featured in the weekly columns. NJ Stage keeps our rates low so they are affordable to arts organizations of all sizes. We are proud to be an independent media company. Nobody covers the Arts throughout the Garden State like New Jersey Stage!
