DANNY CLINCH
Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes will perform at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, July 2.
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through July 8.
MUSIC
• In an annual Fourth of July Week tradition, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes will perform at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, July 2 at 5:30 p.m. E Street Band member Jack Clemons (Clarence Clemons’ nephew) will open on the outdoor Summer Stage, while Clarence Clemons’ son Jarod Clemons and the Bruce Springsteen tribute band The Promised Land will perform inside the Stone Pony, beginning at 4:30 p.m.
Flo Rida will perform in Jersey City, July 4.
• Continuing its tradition of offering free concerts by major music stars on July 4 — Snoop Dogg, Pitbull and Kool & the Gang have all been booked in recent years — Jersey City will present Flo Rida this year, with opening DJ sets by Shaquille O’Neal (performing as DJ Diesel) and Funk Flex, at the Freedom and Fireworks festival at Exchange Place. Following the music, fireworks will launch from two barges in the Hudson River.
• Grateful Dead co-founder Phil Lesh will present a Phil Lesh & Friends show at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, July 4 at 4:30 p.m. The Friends will include four members of the band Dawes (Griffin Goldsmith, Taylor Goldsmith, Trevor Menear and Lee Pardini) along with Lesh’s son, singer-guitarist Grahame Lesh, and singer Nicki Bluhm.
• The O’Jays, formed in the late 1950s and still featuring original members Eddie Levert and Walter Williams, will perform ’70s hits such as “Love Train,” “For the Love of Money” and “Back Stabbers” as well as other material at a free Freedom Festival being presented at Wiggins Park in Camden, July 4. The festival will begin at 5 p.m., with opening sets by Travel Lanes and the Tri-County Symphony Band, and fireworks will follow The O’Jays’ set.
• Music in the Somerset Hills will present pianist Min Kwon, performing excerpts from her America/Beautiful project, featuring 70 variations on “America the Beautiful” by living composers, July 3 at 5 p.m. in Far Hills. The concert will take place outdoors at a private home, whose location will be sent to ticket-holders.
THE DIXIE CHICKS
• The Chicks — formerly known as The Dixie Chicks — released a new album, Gaslighter, in 2020, but haven’t been able to tour behind it until this summer, because of the pandemic. With Patty Griffin opening, they will perform at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, July 6 at 7:30 p.m.; and the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, July 8 at 7:30 p.m.
• As it did in 2020 and 2021, the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn will present outdoor cabaret shows — featuring performers who, in many cases, have performed on Broadway and/or at the Paper Mill itself — at its F.M. Kirby Carriage House Restaurant. The first shor, running from June 29 to July 2, will be Jenna Pastuszek‘s Barbra Streisand tribute, titled “Me, Myself & Barbra.” The shows will be at 7 p.m., with seating for dinner beginning at 5:30 p.m.
THEATER
• Every year, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey presents a play at the Outdoor Stage of Saint Elizabeth University in Florham Park. This year’s outdoor show will be Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing,” and it will begin previews on July 1, officially open on July 6, and run through July 31.
• The new Asbury Park Theater Company will kick off its first, three-show season with the rock musical “Green Day’s American Idiot” at the Kingsley Theater at The Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel in Asbury Park, July 1-3 and 8-10. Next up will be “Million Dollar Quartet,” the jukebox musical about Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, Dec. 2-4 and 9-11, and then the contemporary drama, “American Son,” in April.
“The Wave,” by Jane Seymour.
VISUAL ARTS
• Actress Jane Seymour — best known for starring in the television series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” and the James Bond movie “Live and Let Die” — will show her artwork at Ocean Galleries in Stone Harbor, July 1-10, and make in-person appearances there, July 1-2 from 6 to 9 p.m. and July 3 from noon to 3 p.m. Click here for an in-depth interview with her.
REVIEWS
“Rent” at Vanguard Theater, Montclair. (Through July 3)
“The Pin-Up Girls: A Musical Love Letter” at New Jersey Repertory, Long Branch. (Through July 10)
“Ecstatic Decrepitude,” works by Peter Schumann at ArtYard, Frenchtown. (Through July 31)
“Maxwell Mustardo: Dish-Oriented” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. (Through Sept. 4)
“For the Culture, by the Culture: Thirty Years of Black Art, Activism, and Achievement” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Sept. 25.)
CONTRIBUTE TO NJARTS.NET
Since launching in September 2014, NJArts.net, a 501(c)(3) organization, has become one of the most important media outlets for the Garden State arts scene. And it has always offered its content without a subscription fee, or a paywall. Its continued existence depends on support from members of that scene, and the state’s arts lovers. Please consider making a contribution of any amount to NJArts.net via PayPal, or by sending a check made out to NJArts.net to 11 Skytop Terrace, Montclair, NJ 07043.
