Here's a look at the top 15 most read articles published on New Jersey Stage from January 25-31, 2026. Each week we publish at least 70 articles, including original columns and features, promoting events and covering arts news taking place throughout the state and nearby areas like Philadelphia and New York City. This week's top 15 includes articles from 7 counties (Essex, Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, and Ocean).
1) ParkStage announces first concerts: Sublime, The Head and The Heart, and The B-52s - (EAST FREEHOLD, NJ) -- ParkStage, the nonprofit Count Basie Center's outdoor concert venue collaboration with Monmouth County Tourism, has revealed its first wave of artists coming this summer to East Freehold Showgrounds - Sublime (Friday, June 19), The Head and The Heart with special guests Wilderado (Friday, June 26), and The B-52s with special guests The English Beat (Saturday, July 11).
2) Events This Week in New Jersey fromJanuary 27 to February 2, 2026 - Here is a look at upcoming events taking place from January 27-February 2, 2026 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) It Needs to Be Seen! Don’t Look in The Dark premieres at the 2026 New Jersey Film Festival on January 31! - I love horror. I’ve loved it since I was twelve and my friends from Boy Scouts showed me Friday the 13th for the first time. With almost a decade of experiencing the genre, I have learned that there are things more terrifying than jump scares and gore, for example, the fear of the unknown. Sure, the monster or crazed killer might be scary, but when you can’t see who- or what- is killing people, the viewer’s mind is left to fill in the blanks, projecting their own fears onto the antagonist and making it seem much scarier. Everything is more frightening when you’re in the dark, and Samuel Freeman’s Don’t Look in the Dark uses this aspect of horror to its fullest effect.
4) Amazing documentary on Jazz Master Sun Ra screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on Friday, January 30! - Sun Ra: Do The Impossible, directed and produced by Christine Turner, is a kaleidoscopic documentary portrait of the visionary jazz musician, composer, and poet known as Sun Ra and the musical, historical, and philosophical currents that shaped him.
5) Garden State Film Festival to Take Place March 26-29 - The 24th Garden State Film Festival (GSFF) takes place March 26-29, 2026 across Asbury Park, Monmouth County & Cranford, Union County, NJ featuring over 200 films from around the world, events, filmmaker parties, live podcasts, industry panels and networking opportunities.
6) Psychedelic short 12th House screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on Saturday, January 31, 2026 - 12th House is an abstract short from Ilona and Israel Laboy, a psychedelic menagerie of strange imagery which seems to hold a deep, personal significance for the filmmakers yet can just as easily be enjoyed as a simple barrage of the bizarre. The first few shots act as a rapidly ascending gradient into maximalism, beginning with an almost entirely grayscale shot of the main character walking in a daze on the beach, with barely perceptible accents of color in her makeup. More color is added with the introduction of a graffiti-laden phonebooth, standing as a monument of vibrance against the background of a dull gray ocean, before the film finally reaches a crescendo and embraces the visual aesthetic of psychedelic overstimulation which will characterize the majority of the short, with the setting transitioning from the black-and-white beach to what appears to be either a bar or restaurant drenched in multi-colored neon lighting.
7) Rock On! This Week's Sound Bites... 01/29/2026 - So much is made, especially in today's political and human climate of "The haves" and "The have nots," the rich vs poor, beliefs vs beliefs and then there are those among us who believe that kindness in any form should take precedence; Ken Freirich is one of those people.
8) The Broadway Theatre of Pitman presents Born This Way - A Lady Gaga Tribute show on Thursday - (PITMAN, NJ) -- The Broadway Theatre of Pitman presents Born This Way - A Lady Gaga Tribute show on Thursday, January 29, 2026 at 7:00pm. Experience the magic and glamour of Lady Gaga like never before with this electrifying tribute show!
9) McCarter Theatre presents Lucius - A History Worth Repeating - (PRINCETON, NJ) -- McCarter Theatre presents Lucius - A History Worth Repeating on Friday, March 27, 2026 at 8:00pm in the Matthews Theatre. Known for their engaging live performances and spell-binding harmonies, Grammy-nominated indie-pop band Lucius are a mesmerizing experience of mirrored kinship and honesty.
10) The ShowRoom and Asbury Park Movie Club present Remembering Reiner Film Series - (ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- The ShowRoom and Asbury Park Movie Club present Remembering Reiner, a three-film retrospective celebrating the remarkable, genre-spanning career of filmmaker Rob Reiner, screening Wednesdays throughout February. The series includes screenings of This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally, and The Princess Bride.
11) This Week in Music: Previews for Concerts from January 27 to February 2, 2026 - Here is a look at shows taking place from January 27 to February 2, 2026 along with our featured listings and a look at some upcoming shows. New Jersey Stage offers previews of concerts throughout the Garden State as well as select shows in New York City and Philadelphia areas.
12) Asbury Park Theater Company moves Remember Jones' 20-Piece Mad Dogs & Englishmen Celebration to Count Basie Center - (RED BANK, NJ) -- Join Asbury Park Theater Company as they celebrate Joe Cocker's groundbreaking live album and tour, Mad Dogs & Englishmen, on Saturday, February 14, 2026 on the Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre stage at the Count Basie Center for the Arts. The show, previously announced as a two-night event at Ocean Grove's Jersey Shore Arts Center, makes a sudden surprise move to the Basie due to special demand and limitations for audience and production at the OG venue. An exciting move for the growing and evolving theater company, this is the first time Remember Jones will bring this show to the Basie stage.
13) Lighthouse International Film Society to screen "The Voice of Hind Rajab" - (LONG BEACH ISLAND, NJ) -- Lighthouse International Film Society presents a screening of The Voice of Hind Rajab on Thursday, February 5, 2026 at Long Beach Island Foundation of Arts & Science @ 7:30pm. Based on the actual audio recordings of a 5-year-old Gazan girl trapped in a car with the bodies of her family members, the film blends documentary filmmaking with dramatization to maximize the emotional impact of this tragedy without ever seeing the little girl or the place where she lay dying.
14) Jason Albert named to MPAC's Board of Trustees - (MORRISTOWN, NJ) -- Jason Albert, Global Chief Privacy Officer at ADP, has been named to Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC)'s Board of Trustees, the venue announced.
15) Montclair Art Museum presents See It Now: Contemporary Art from the Ann and Mel Schaffer Collection - (MONTCLAIR, NJ) -- Montclair Art Museum presents See It Now: Contemporary Art from the Ann and Mel Schaffer Collection, a landmark exhibition presenting a major selection of contemporary art from one of the most discerning private collections formed over the past four decades. The exhibition will be on view February 7–June 28, 2026.
Following decades of experience in public relations and writing for the arts, New Jersey Stage was created to serve as the state’s arts newswire and provide affordable advertising for the arts (from $50-$100 per month). The site has been redesigned around its Event Calendar and event preview articles. The vast majority of these articles come from a monthly schedule that lets us cover every arts genre and region of the state on a regular basis with original coverage. These event preview articles get noticed when we first publish them and then get noticed again the week the event takes place. Our articles and event calendar pages are picked up by search engines and resources like Google News. We also accept press releases sent to [email protected]
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