Photo by Timothey Abel
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- McCarter Theatre Center presents Stella Cole in the Berlind Theatre on Thursday, June 5, 2025 at 7:30pm. To watch Stella Cole perform is to be transported in time. With irresistible charm and a love for the Great American Songbook, she introduces audiences to the timeless magic of jazz.
Buoyed in part by her weekly livestream concerts on Tiktok from 2020 to 2022, the multi-talented singer’s ever-growing numbers both embody and defy every superlative cliché (staggering, mind blowing, through the roof). Her most viral singing video has a whopping 27 million views. With a combined social media following of over 1.6 million, Stella has caught the attention of superstars David Foster, James Taylor, Michael Buble, John Mayer and Meghan Trainor.
Countless devoted fans from social media flock to see her perform, many of them traveling cross country and overseas to attend her sold out headlining concerts around the world. She has performed in venues like Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Birdland and the Cafe Carlyle. In 2023, she toured the United States, Australia and New Zealand with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox. She released a stylish, swinging rendition of Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” with the group in 2023 to mass acclaim, racking up more than 6 million views.
Tickets are available for purchase online. McCarter Theatre Center is located at 91 University Place in Princeton, New Jersey.
Stella’s enduring influence as a viral artist and live performer lays a promising foundation – and gives her an eager built-in audience - for her highly anticipated self-titled debut album, an exquisite collection produced by Matt Pierson.
True to her eclectic tastes, Stella Cole features both very familiar and delightfully obscure Songbook tunes including “Over the Rainbow,” “(Love Is) The Tender Trap,” the Judy Garland classic “The Boy Next Door,” the Streisand-inspired “When the Sun Comes Out,” “Detour Ahead” and “Moon River,” the iconic Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer tune she chose as the album’s lead single.
“We picked ‘Moon River’ because it’s a very important song for me,” Stella says. “When I started posting on social media, the first well known musician to notice me was James Taylor, reposting a video of me singing ‘Moon River’. That was a big moment!” Stella also cites the song as symbolic of her goal for the entire album. “What I’ve been trying to do with this music is comfort people. To me, ‘Moon River’ always feels like a deep breath; hopeful, calming and nostalgic. There’s so much negativity and chaos in the world and I want people to stop, listen and feel they can breathe again.”
Among Pierson’s suggestions to the track list were “P.S. I Love You” and one of the album’s greatest surprises, Billie Eilish’s Top Ten hit “My Future.”Performed as a vocal-acoustic guitar duet with Pinheiro, the Billie Eilish song serves as a uniquely contemporary love story in an album of songs from the midcentury. The track list also includes the ballads “My Foolish Heart” and “Blame it On My Youth” and a spirited, swinging rendition of “On the Street Where You Live” featuring Jerry Weldon on tenor sax.
“Many people of my generation aren’t familiar with these songs, and I’m excited about the opportunity to introduce this timeless music to a new audience,” says Stella. “Often when people hear my voice, they tell me I was born in the wrong decade. I definitely feel an artistic connection to those earlier time periods, but I don’t want to overly romanticize the past. Right now is the perfect time for me to be singing because the world needs this soothing and joyful music now just as much as they needed it in the 40s and 50s.”
McCarter is one of the country’s flagship theaters and a vibrant center for community and the performing arts. Located on the campus of Princeton University, the company is an independent nonprofit, serving as a nationally renowned, multi-disciplinary creative hub for arts and ideas, offering theatre, music, dance, spoken word, and educational programs for all ages. A two-time Tony Award winner, McCarter’s legacy of artistic excellence dates back to the theatre’s first performances in 1930. Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Kaufmann & Hart’s You Can’t Take It with You, and William Inge’s Bus Stop all had their premieres on the McCarter stage, paving the way for a long history of collaborations with playwrights to launch remarkable works that have gone on to tens of thousands of performances, reaching millions of audience members around the world.
The company is equally revered for presenting global artists on its stages, including Alvin Ailey, Yo-Yo Ma, Samara Joy, Hasan Minhaj, Jon Stewart, Caetano Veloso, Rhiannon Giddens, Patti Smith, Esperanza Spalding, Lake Street Dive, and Herbie Hancock, among many others. Of the 100,000 community members who directly participate in the company’s work every year, more than 5,000 are students taking part in McCarter’s robust educational offerings in Princeton, Trenton, and schools throughout the region. McCarter leads with values of “justice and joy, and beauty in belonging,” creating stories and experiences that enliven minds, expand imaginations, and engage communities.
