Top 10 NJ Arts Events of the Week: Lake Street Dive, ‘On a Winter’s Night,’ Fred Hersch, more

JAY BLAKESBERG

Lake Street Dive (from left, Akie Bermiss, Mike Calabrese, Rachael Price, James Cornelison and Bridget Kearney) performs at NJPAC in Newark, Feb. 5.

Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through Feb. 9.

MUSIC

• The Boston-bred, Brooklyn-based indie-pop band Lake Street Dive intends to create a casual vibe on each stop of its Gather Round Sounds Tour, which comes to Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. In an Instagram post, they wrote that they want to make these shows “easy going, semi-acoustic evenings full of the fan favs, some deep cuts, and maybe even some works in progress in our most relaxed, basement couch setting yet.” Singer-songwriter Monica Martin opens.

• Singer-songwriters Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka, Lucy Kaplansky and Patty Larkin are joining forces for a tour titled “On a Winter’s Night,” which will come to The Vogel at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m., and the South Orange Performing Arts Center, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. Gorka and Larkin both were featured on On a Winter’s Night, a popular 1994 folk compilation album (executive produced by Christine Lavin, and subtitled Winter Love Songs) that led to a number of collaborative tours.

THEATER

• Whether or not you believe in psychics, you may have a good time at “A Peculiar and Intimate Evening of Mystic Spiritualism,” which will be presented at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, Feb. 6 at 9 p.m. Graceann Dorse and Nannette Deasy will play a pair of mediums, The Vole Sisters, in it, and describe it as a “mostly improvised, partly scripted, audience participatory, completely hilarious paranormal comedy.”

HERMAN BLAUSTEIN

FRED HERSCH

MULTI-MEDIA

• Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Fred Hersch, who spent several months in an AIDS-related coma in 2008, will perform and speak about his life as part of the Healing With Music series at the Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. As part of the evening, he will perform “Breath by Breath,” a suite written during the pandemic, with bassist Drew Gress, drummer Jochen Rückert and the Crosby Street String Quartet.

Hersch will also present a free Live Music Meditation, with meditation instruction by Matthew Weiner (associate dean in the Princeton University Office of Religious Life), Feb. 9 at 12:30 p.m. at Richardson Auditorium. And he will participate in a discussion with composer and pianist Gregg Kallor following a screening of the documentary, “The Ballad of Fred Hersch,” Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Princeton Garden Theatre.

• The Peak Performances series at Montclair State University will present “The Night Falls” — choreographed by Troy Schumacher and featuring nine dancers, eight singers and a chamber music ensemble — Feb. 9-10 at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 12 at 3 p.m. at MSU’s Kasser Theater. Schumacher, who also directs, collaborated on this music/theater/dance piece with Karen Russell (book, lyrics) and Ellis Ludwig-Leono (music, lyrics).

Promotional material describes the piece as “A new myth for our fractured era … All across America, people on the brink of despair begin to have the same nightmare. A song will not leave their heads — terribly beautiful music. Its victims include Felis Robles, a Queens, NY teenager whose boyfriend has recently died. Night after night, Felis dreams of three women transformed into monstrous birds. They sing to him in his sleep, beckoning him to join them at ‘The Night Falls,’ an abandoned Floridian roadside attraction built around a sublime grotto … Desperate to learn why this song is haunting him — and desperate to hear it again – Felis makes the trip to the Night Falls Grotto. When he arrives, he discovers he is not alone.”

• The Dryden Ensemble, which plays music by 17th and 18th century composers on period instruments, will present a free event, titled “Anna Magdalena Bach: Her Story,” Feb. 5 at 3 p.m. at the Princeton Theological Seminary Chapel. The show will feature a reading by Jane McKinley from her poem sequence based on the life of Bach’s second wife, accompanied by Bach’s music played by Dryden members.

From left, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe co-star in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, – Part 2.”

FILM

• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” (2011), the final movie in the Harry Potter series, will be screened, with live music by the New Jersey Symphony (conducted by Constantine Kitsopoulos), Feb. 4 at 2 p.m. at Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark.

• The blockbuster “Titanic” celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and that will be celebrated with theatrical screenings, including ones at the IMAX Theatre at the Tropicana in Atlantic City, Feb. 9-12.

• Basie Center Cinemas in Red Bank will celebrate Black History Month with a series of screenings this month, including one of “A Journal for Jordan,” Feb. 4 at 4:30 p.m. Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams co-star in this 2021, Denzel Washington-directed film, which is based on Dana Canedy’s “A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor,” a memoir about her fiancé, who served in the Iraq War. Canedy will participate in a post-screening talkback on Feb. 4.

Though the screening is free, advance tickets are required; visit basiecentercinemas.org.

The series will also include free screenings of “Do the Right Thing,” Feb. 5 at 4:30 p.m.; “The Express: The Ernie Davis Story,” Feb. 12 at 4:30 p.m.; “The Wiz,” Feb. 19 at 1:45 p.m.; “Dear White People,” Feb. 19 at 4:30 p.m.; and “The Green Book,” Feb. 16 at 4:30 p.m.

CARY ELWES

• Cary Elwes — who co-starred in the 1987 movie “The Princess Bride” and wrote the 2014 book, “As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride” — will be featured in “The Princess Bride: An Inconceivable Evening with Cary Elwes,” Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank. After the movie is shown, Elwes will participate in a moderated conversation about it.

REVIEWS

“RetroBlakesberg: Captured on Film, 1978-2008,” works by rock photographer Jay Blakesberg at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Feb. 5)

“Popcorn Falls” at New Jersey Repertory Company, Long Branch. (Through Feb. 12)

“Derrick Belcham: The You Voice” at MANA Contemporary, Jersey City. (Through Feb. 12)

“Michael Dal Cerro: The Infinite City” at Monmouth Museum, Lincroft. (Through Feb. 12)

“New Jersey Arts Annual: Reemergence” at State Museum, Trenton. (Through April 30)

“Ladies and Gentlemen … The Beatles!” at Grammy Museum Experience Prudential Center, Newark. (Through June 25)

“George Inness: Visionary Landscapes” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through June 30, 2024)