STEVE McNICHOLAS
“Stomp” will be presented in Morristown, Jan. 7-8, and Red Bank, Jan. 9.
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through Jan. 13.
THEATER
• A touring version of the long-running, high-energy off-Broadway show “Stomp” — combining percussion music utilizing unconventional instruments such as garbage cans, inner tubes and hubcaps, as well as acrobatics and pantomime — comes to the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Jan. 7 at 8 p.m. and Jan. 8 at 3 and 8 p.m., and the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m. (UPDATE: The “Stomp” tour has been postponed, with new dates TBA.)
• The Carriage House Restaurant at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn will present a murder mystery dinner, “Dead Men Don’t Speakeasy,” set in the Roaring Twenties, Jan. 7-8, 14-15 and 21-22 at 6:30 p.m.
• PinnWorth Productions will present “Talley’s Folly” — Lanford Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1980 play about a Jewish man and a Protestant woman who fall in love in Missouri in the 1940s — Jan. 7-9 and 14-16 at the at Kelsey Theatre at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor.
BRANDEE YOUNGER
MUSIC
• Bethany Baptist Church and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center will bring the church’s Jazz Vespers series online, Jan. 8 at 6 p.m., with a service featuring the harp player Brandee Younger, who has performed with artists ranging from Pharoah Sanders to The Roots and released her sixth album, Somewhere Different, in 2020. For the viewing link, click here.
• The Grammy-nominated pianist Igor Levit will play music by Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner and Liszt, Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton.
• Foreigners Journey — a band, featuring Tony-nominated singer Constantine Maroulis, that performs the classic-rock music of both Foreigner and Journey — will perform at the Levoy Theatre in Millville, Jan. 8 at 8 p.m.
ABC/FRANK OCKENFELS
KAITLYN BRISTOWE
DANCE
• The “Dancing with the Stars: Dare to Be Different” tour, inspired by the hit TV series, comes to the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Jan. 11-12 at 7:30 p.m.; the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Jan. 19 at 8 p.m.; and the Event Center at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, Jan. 21 at 8 p.m. The show will feature professional dancers from the show, including Brandon Armstrong, Alan Bersten, Artem Chigvintsev, Sasha Farber, Koko Iwasaki, Daniella Karagach, Pasha Pashkov, Gleb Savchenko, Emma Slater, Britt Stewart and Sofia Ghavami. Plus there will be special guests. Kaitlyn Bristowe, who won the 2020 DWTS season with partner Chigvintsev after appearing on “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” in 2015, will perform at all the New Jersey shows. Iman Shumpert, the professional basketball player who won the 2021 DWTS season with partner Karagach, also will perform in Morristown.
FAMILY
• In a program designed for children in grades 3-8, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will present “Red Firecrackers: The Legend of the First Chinese New Year,” telling the story of the origin of the Chinese Lunar New Year, at the Grunin Center for the Arts at Ocean County College in Toms River, Jan. 11 at 10 a.m. and noon, and Jan. 12 at 10 and 11:30 a.m.
FILM
• The McCarter Theater Center in Princeton will present “Dreaming Zenzile,” a play based on the life of South African singer Miriam Makeba, from Jan. 15 to Feb. 13, and as a sort of preview of that, the Princeton Public Library will screen the 2011 documentary “Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba!,” Jan. 9 at 4 p.m. There will be no admission charge.
NAI-NI CHEN
OTHER
• A funeral service for the late choreographer and dancer Nai-Ni Chen will take place in New York on Jan. 9, but an online memorial is also scheduled for Jan. 8 at 7:30 p.m. Click here to register. Chen, whose Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is based in Fort Lee (and who was a principal affiliate artist of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark), died on Dec. 12 at the age of 62.
REVIEWS
“Doug Herren: Color-Forms/Ceramic Structures” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. (Through Jan. 9)
“1+1” at Black Box Performing Arts Center, Englewood. (Through Jan. 23)
“On and Off the Streets: Urban Art New Jersey” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Feb. 27)
“Bruce Springsteen Live!” at Grammy Museum Experience Prudential Center, Newark. (Through March 20)
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