Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through Aug. 11.
MUSIC
• Lady Gaga brings her Chromatica Ball tour — named after her 2020 album Chromatica, and twice postponed because of the pandemic — to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Aug. 11 at 7:30 p.m. She has said that the show “documents the many different stages and sides of grief and the manic energy of grief that I feel that I’ve experienced in my life” and that “The stage was inspired by brutalist architecture, materials, textures, crudity, transparency. A real savage and hard look at yourself, what you’ve been through. I wanted to tell a story with abstraction and art, so the show celebrates things that I have always loved like art and fashion and dance and music and technology, poetry, and the way all of those things work together.”
RENE HUEMER
From left, Mike Gordon, Page McConnell, Jon Fishman and Trey Anastasio of Phish.
• Like they did last year, the hugely popular jam band Phish has scheduled a three-night stand on the beach in Atlantic City. It takes place Aug. 5-7 at 7:30 p.m., and for those who can’t make it there, the band is offering live webcasts, nightly, at livephish.com.
• After being forced by the pandemic to go online for two years, the annual NJ Clearwater Festival, now in its 47th year, will be in-person again this year, taking place Aug. 6-7 on the banks of the Navesink River in Red Bank. The environmental and arts festival takes place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 6 and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 7, and there will be no admission charge.
Performers will include Goldenseal, The Wag, Spook Handy, Donna and Rick Nestler, Poppa John Bug, Tyler Eats World, The Strazzacasters, Arlan Feiles, Corvid Corpus, Amanda Duncan and more.
In addition to the music, there will be sailboat rides, environmental discussions, children’s entertainment, food trucks, green vendors and more.
• Singer-songwriter J.D. Souther performs at The Vogel at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Aug. 6 at 8 p.m. The Songwriters Hall of Fame member is best known for co-writing hits for The Eagles (“Best of My Love,” “Heartache Tonight,” “New Kid in Town”) and Don Henley (“The Heart of the Matter”), though he also has had some hits of his own — including “You’re Only Lonely” and the James Taylor duet “Her Town Too” — and formed the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band with Chris Hillman (The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers) and Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield, Poco) in the ’70s.
• Gary U.S. Bonds will perform hits such as “Quarter to Three,” “New Orleans” and “This Little Girls” at a free concert at the William Morrow Beach at Municipal Beach Park in Somers Point, Aug. 5 at 7 p.m., as part of the Somers Point Beach Concert Series. The Billy Walton Band will open.
Future offerings in this series include Roomful of Blues, Aug. 12; John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band, Sept. 2; and The Cowsills, Sept. 9.
MAJOR ATTAWAY
• Major Attaway — who played the Genie in “Aladdin” on Broadway from 2014 to 2020, and starred in “A Jolly Holiday: Celebrating Disney’s Broadway Hits” at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn last year — will present a show titled “The Genie’s Jukebox” at the Brookside Cabaret at Paper Mill’s Carriage House Restaurant, Aug. 10-12 at 7 p.m. The Paper Mill website describes the show as a “mix of pop, Broadway, and the American songbook, featuring new arrangements of Frank Sinatra classics.”
• Bourré in Atlantic City presents a Ska at the Shore Fest, Aug. 7 at noon, with The Pietasters, The Toasters, Mephiskapheles, The Pilfers, Best of the Worst, Hub City Stompers, Spring Heeled Jack and The Backyard Superheroes.
THEATER
• Bergen County’s Shakespeare in the Park series will consist of performances of the Black Box Performing Arts Center‘s “Othello,” Aug. 10, 17, 24 and 31 and Sept. 7 and 14 at 8 p.m., outdoors at the Englewood Public Library, as well performances indoors at the Black Box Performing Arts Center in Englewood, Aug. 18-21 and 25-28 at 8 p.m. All shows are free.
• The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center will host Epic Actors’ Workshop’s 16th South Asian Theater Festival, Aug. 6-7, with “Silence! The Court Is in Session” in English, Aug. 6 at 3 p.m.; “Aajir (The Bonded)” in Hindi, Aug. 6 at 5:15 p.m.; “The Girl Who Touched the Stars” in English, Aug. 6 at 7:45 p.m.; “Aami Jagadish (I Am Jagadish)” in Bengali, Aug. 7 at 3 p.m.; and “Sakharam Binder” in English, Aug. 7 at 6:30 p.m.
FAMILY
• The New Jersey State Fair/Sussex County Farm and Horse Show takes place at the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta, Aug. 5-13, with rides, carnival games, music, dance, magic shows, demolition derbies, truck and tractor pulls and more, in addition to the agricultural and equine attractions.
REVIEWS
“The Last Supper” at South Orange Performing Arts Center. (Through Aug. 7)
“Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic” at Newark Museum of Art. (Through Aug. 21)
“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)
“New Jersey Arts Annual: Reemergence” at State Museum, Trenton. (Through April 30)
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.
