Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes will perform at The Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park on Aug. 31.
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Sept. 4.
MUSIC
• The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, will present the band that has more to do with putting it on the rock ‘n’ roll map than anyone else — Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes — on its outdoor Summer Stage, Aug. 31 at 8 p.m. LaBamba & the Hubcaps — featuring ex-Jukes Richie “LaBamba” Rosenberg, Mark Pender and Bobby Bandiera — will open at 6 p.m., and there will also be sets inside the Pony by Tom Vincent, at 4:20 p.m.; Johnny Kasun, at 5 p.m.; and ex-Juke Bill Walton’s Billy Walton Band, at 10 p.m.
• Related to the previous item … the Jukes’ current keyboard player, music director and occasional lead vocalist Jeff Kazee will present a show of his own at Transparent Clinch Gallery in Asbury Park, Aug. 30 at 7 p.m.
• Bret Michaels’ “Parti Gras” tour — coming to the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. — has a lineup of artists you wouldn’t necessarily think would be touring with the Poison frontman, solo artist and frequent reality TV participant. Or each other.
Michaels is being joined on the tour by country singer-songwriter Chris Janson, Don Felder of The Eagles, Lou Gramm of Foreigner, and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister. They all perform separately, but also join each other at times.
The Del McCoury Band.
• Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music will present New Jersey’s biggest annual bluegrass event, The Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, Aug. 30-31 and Sept. 1 at Salem County Fairgrounds in Woodstown, with artists including The Del McCoury Band, Danny Paisley & the Southern Grass and The Po’ Ramblin Boys (all on Aug. 30); Asleep at the Wheel and The Gibson Brothers (both on Aug. 31); The Seldom Scene and The Alex Leach Band (both on Sept. 1); and The Becky Buller Band (on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1). Overall, there will be about 25 sets of music on the main stage, plus smaller jam sessions, workshops and classes, and a children’s stage.
• Deep Purple is describing its current tour as “Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of ‘Smoke on the Water.’ ” And three of the musicians who performed on the original 1974 recording of that song — singer Ian Gillan, bassist Roger Glover and drummer Ian Paice — are still in the group, joined by guitarist Simon McBride and keyboardist Don Airey. They will perform at Ovation Hall at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, Aug. 30 at 8 p.m., and The PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, Aug. 31 at 6:30 p.m., double billed with their fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Yes, whose current lineup includes guitarist Steve Howe, keyboardist Geoff Downes, bassist Billy Sherwood, singer Jon Davison and drummer Jay Schellen.
(Also, believe it or not, former Deep Purple member Ritchie Blackmore, who played guitar on “Smoke on the Water,” has New Jersey shows on the same two nights with his current band, Blackmore’s Night: Aug. 30-31 at The Vogel at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank.)
• The cover bands Beginnings (playing the music of Chicago) and Jimmy & the Parrots (playing the music of Jimmy Buffett and tropical rock) will perform at the Stephen J. Capestro Theater (home of Plays-in-the-Park) at Roosevelt Park in Edison, Sept. 1 at 4 p.m. There will be no admission charge, but donations will be accepted for the hunger organizations Replenish and Feeding Middlesex County.
NISI STURGIS
THEATER
• The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey will present Jessica Swale’s 2014 adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1811 novel “Sense and Sensibility” at its F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University in Madison, with the first preview on Sept. 4, the official opening night on Sept. 7, and the last show on Sept. 22. Nisi Sturgis — who has acted in many past Shakespeare Theatre productions, including an adaptation of Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” — will direct.
Shakespeare Theatre artistic director Brian B. Crowe said in a press release: “Though it has never waned, Austen’s popularity has certainly been given a huge boost through Shonda Rhimes’ ‘Bridgerton’ series, and we are pleased to turn audiences’ attention back to the groundbreaking author who inspired that pop-culture hit. It’s been nearly two decades since Jane Austen graced our stage when Bonnie J. Monte’s adaptation of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ was presented in 2006. Since then, Austen has been a popular request from our patrons, and it seems appropriate that the actress who delightfully brought Jane Bennett to life in that celebrated production now returns to direct this one.”
Sturgis said: “A friend asked me the other day, ‘Why do we keep returning to Austen?’ I think partly because our perceptions about each other will always be, to some extent, wrong … Austen presents the value of extending grace towards others, allowing those perceptions to change, and how that thorny process ultimately leads us to a deeper knowledge of ourselves. She’s a nascent feminist whose characters are often in the tug of war between being true to oneself and compromising oneself to exist within a society’s rules, standards and expectations: the constant balancing of existence and coexistence. And she’s super funny, which is always, always good!”
COURTESY OF EMANUEL ALMORG
A scene from Emanuel Almborg’s 2016 film “Talking Hands,” which will be part of the “Smoke & Mirrors” exhibition at The Zimmerli Art Museum.
VISUAL ARTS
• The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in New Brunswick will open a new exhibition, “Smoke & Mirrors,” on Sept. 4, and it will run through Dec. 22. According to a press release, the exhibition “considers how artists make inequities in museums transparent to all. Finding your way through a museum or an exhibition can be a straightforward experience with few obstructions — for the able-bodied. That one-size-fits-all approach to art access is upended in ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ … The exhibit, featuring the work of 14 international artists with disabilities, explores ‘access aesthetics,’ an artistic genre that considers how artists make inequities in museums more transparent.”
“Smoke & Mirrors” includes works by Emanuel Almborg, Alt-Text as Poetry, Erik Benjamins, Pelenakeke Brown, Fayen d’Evie, JJJJJerome Ellis, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Sugandha Gupta, Carmen Papalia, Finnegan Shannon, Liza Sylvestre, Aislinn Thomas, Corban Walker and Syrus Marcus Ware.
JAYNE TOOHEY
SPOOK HANDY
OTHER
• Now in its 49th year, The New Jersey Friends of Clearwater Festival will take place Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 at Sunset Park in Asbury Park, offering music plus environmentally themed educational displays, children’s activities, food trucks and vendors. There will be no admission charge.
The festival is a cousin of the long-running but now defunct Clearwater Festival, which was co-founded by the late Pete Seeger and his wife, the late Toshi Seeger, and used to take place annually in Westchester County, New York.
Performers will include Spook Handy, The Wag, Lydia Adam Davis, Dale Lakata, The Solidarity Singers, The dt’s, The Colie Brice Band, The Chuck Lambert Band, Mara Levine and Caroline Cutroneo, Southpaw and The Shadetree Mechanics.
• Mark Kelly — the Arizona Senator, former astronaut and West Orange native who has been in the news a lot lately as a Democratic National Convention speaker and one of the people whom Kamala Harris was reportedly considering selecting as her running mate — will sign copies of his children’s book, “Mousetronaut Saves the World,” Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. at Bookends in Ridgewood. This new book follows his previous efforts “Mousetronaut” and “Mousetronaut Goes to Mars.”
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Click HERE for a list of free shows taking place throughout New Jersey.
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REVIEWS
“Set in Motion: Kinetic Worlds from the Studio of Richard Whitten” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Sept. 1)
“Portrait as Statement” at Halsey Arts, Newark. (Through Sept. 6)
“Paul Leibow: 33 & 1/3 (Long Playing)” at Monmouth Museum, Lincroft. (Through Sept. 8)
“Suleika Jaouad and Anne Francey: The Alchemy of Blood” at ArtYard, Frenchtown. (Through Sept. 22)
“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories From New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” at Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton. (Through March 2)
“Bony Ramirez: Cattleya” at Newark Museum of Art. (Through March 9)
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