A Light of Day Benefit Concert will take place in Woodbridge, Aug. 28.
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Aug. 29.
MUSIC
• The next Light of Day Festival won’t take place until January. But Light of Day president Joe D’Urso and four other singer-songwriters who frequently perform at it — James Maddock, Danielia Cotton, Jake Thistle and Miss Emily — will join forces for a Light of Day benefit as part of the Woodbridge Wednesdays series at Parker Press Park, Aug. 28 at 7:30 p.m.
There will be no admission charge, but donations will be accepted. The annual festival, founded in 2000, has raised millions of dollars for the fight against Parkinson’s disease and related disorders.
SaRON CRENSHAW
• Blues singer-songwriter SaRon Crenshaw will headline the free Long Branch Jazz & Blues Festival, organized by the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation and taking place from 1 to 9 p.m. Aug. 24 at the Long Branch Great Lawn and Promenade. Other performers will include Mikey Junior, James Popik & Supernova, Shadetree Mechanics, CMJ Jazz Band and Jo Wymer; children’s activities will be offered; and food trucks and arts vendors will be on hand.
• Aug. 21 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of jazz icon Count Basie. And in his hometown of Red Bank, The Mike Kaplan 9 — a nine-piece band led by saxophonist Kaplan — will play his music in a free show, Aug. 25, in the Westside Jazz Concerts series at Johnny Jazz Park. The show also will feature The Chuck Lambert Band and The Kenny Blake Quintet, and will begin at 1 p.m. in honor of Basie’s trademark song, “One O’Clock Jump.”
• James Langton’s New York All Stars Big Band will also pay tribute to Basie — as well as Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Earl Hines and Benny Goodman — at its “Big Band Royalty: Swingin’ with The King, The Count, The Duke and The Earl” concert at The Algonquin Arts Theatre in Manasquan, Aug. 25 at 3 p.m.
• Blues-rock singer-songwriter Katie Henry, who grew up in Vernon but now lives in Philadelphia, will return to her home state for a free show in the Sparta Arts series at Dykstra Concert Park in Sparta, Aug. 23 at 7 p.m., with The Atlanta Café Band opening. Henry recently released her third album, Get Goin’.
SHERVIN LAINEZ
Low Cut Connie’s Adam Weiner.
• The Bruce Springsteen fan group Spring-Nuts will present a solo concert by singer-songwriter-pianist Adam Weiner (of Low Cut Connie) at The Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, Aug. 24, with proceeds benefiting Stevie Van Zandt’s educational TeachRock organization, the FulFill food bank of Monmouth and Ocean counties, and The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University.
Spring-Nuts will hold its sixth annual “Seaside Serenade” gathering, the next day (Aug. 25), at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park. For more on the organization, visit facebook.com/groups/SpringNuts.
• The Troubadour Concert Series at The Morristown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will not present its annual Ukefest this year (it will be back next year). But it will offer an evening of ukulele music, Aug. 23 at 8 p.m., with Liz Chidester, who performed at last year’s Ukefest (see video below) and the group The FLukes.
THEATER
• The Music Mountain Theatre in Lambertville will present “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” Aug. 23-25 and 30-31 and Sept. 1 and 6-8. Based on the Baroness Orczy’s 1905 novel (famously made into a 1934 swashbuckler film starring Leslie Howard, with other film adaptations as well), this version features music by Frank Wildhorn and book and lyrics by Nan Knighton; it ran on Broadway from 1997 to 2000, and was nominated for the Tony for Best Musical.
The cover of Nick Corasaniti’s “I Don’t Wanna Go Home: An Oral History of The Stone Pony.”
OTHER
• Nick Corasaniti, author of “I Don’t Wanna Go Home: The Oral History of The Stone Pony,” will sign copies of it, Aug. 24 at 1 p.m. at The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music‘s pop-up “Outpost” at the Convention Hall building in Asbury Park.
• The Montclair Art Museum will offer a Medieval Fest, Aug. 25 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with music from the Montclair Early Music vocal and instrumental ensembles and the children’s recorder group Dragon Bards, plus sparring knights, Viking lawn games, jig dancing, cosplaying, food and craft vendors, and more.
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Click HERE for a list of free shows taking place throughout New Jersey.
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REVIEWS
“The Interpreter,” presented by The Theater Project at Oakes Center, Summit. (Through Aug. 25)
“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)
“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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