JOHN CAVANAUGH
Fantastic Cat (featuring, from left, Michael Hesslein, Brian Dunne, Anthony D’Amato Don DiLego and Mike Montali), shown at a Light of Day show at Asbury Lanes in January 2024.
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Jan. 16.
MUSIC
• Most of this year’s Light of Day WinterFest, raising money to combat Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, will take place on the weekend of Fri., Jan. 17 to Sun., Sun. 19. But there will be a few events during the week leading up to that. Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m., a “Songwriters on the River” concert at The City Winery Loft in New York will feature Willie Nile, John Easdale, Danielia Cotton, Adam Ezra, Joe D’Urso, Paul Collins, Will Dailey, Diane Gentile, Amanda Cross & Derek Cruz, and Pete Mancini. Then, Jan. 16 at 6:50 p.m., the festival’s official “Kick Off” concert at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park will feature Fantastic Cat (the group made up of singer-songwriters Mike Montali, Anthony D’Amato, Don DiLego and Brian Dunne), James Maddock, Williams Honor, The Matt O’Ree Band, The Jake Thistle Band, Emily Grove, Dave Vargo, SONiA, Bob Polding, and Gabby & Fran.
Also on Jan. 16, a 7:30 p.m., Monmouth University’s student-run Blue Hawks Records label will showcase artists associated with it, with Ballistic Berry, Samantha Spano, Joleen Amer, Corinne Rose, Amani Lillian, MAR, Abby Garcia and Sam Jordan performing, and Joe Rapolla and Zack Sandler co-hosting.
The main Light of Day concert will take place Jan. 18 at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, with John Rzeznik of The Goo Goo Dolls, Jesse Malin, Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers and many others.
Good Co will perform in Hackettstown, Jan. 11.
• Good Co — which describes itself as “the US’s first live Electro Swing Band, a genre that … combines the era of jitterbugging flappers and underground speakeasies with the funky beats and the electric sounds of today’s dance music” — will perform at The Sitnik Theatre at The Lackland Performing Arts Center in Hackettstown, Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. (see video below)
The show will kick off The Centenary Stage Company‘s stylistically eclectic Winter Thaw Music Festival, which will also include shows by jazz singer Judy Carmichael, Jan. 19 at 2 p.m.; the TAKE3 classical-pop group, Jan. 26 at 2 p.m.; and Gangstagrass, which combines elements of bluegrass music and hip-hop, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m.
• An all-star band is playing songs from all phases of Beatles history on the All You Need Is Love Tour, which will come to The Wellmont Theater in Montclair, Jan. 15 at 8 p.m. Performers will include bassist-singer Kasim Sulton (Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, Meat Loaf, Blue Öyster Cult), guitarist Steve Kimock (The Other Ones, RatDog, Phil Lesh & Friends), drummer Prairie Prince (Jefferson Starship, Journey, The Tubes), narrator Michael Des Barres (Power Station), guitarist-singer Bobby Lee Rodgers, keyboardist-singer Gill Assayas, guitarist Mark Rashotte and singer Andy Forgie.
• Crossroads in Garwood will present a “Winter Fusion Fest,” featuring Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius and The Andy Rothstein Band, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m.
ROBERT MONTANO
THEATER
• Actor Robert Montano wrote and stars in “Small,” an autobiographical one-person play about his life, including the work he has done as a professional jockey and a professional dancer. George Street Playhouse will present the play at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, with previews beginning Jan. 14, the official opening night on Jan. 17, and the last show on Feb. 9.
Montano received a Drama Desk Awards nomination, in the Solo Performance category, last year, for his performance in the play’s world premiere production at The Penguin Rep Theatre in Stony Point, New York.
FILM
• This year’s West Orange Classic Film Festival at AMC Dine-In Essex Green 9 will begin, Jan. 12 at 2 p.m., with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1976 “Family Plot,” the last movie he directed before dying in 1980. NJArts.net film critic Stephen Whitty will discuss the film after it screens; Whitty has written that “Family Plot” is “definitely lesser-known Hitch, but its mix of droll humor and tricky twists will feel immediately familiar, and the movie’s eclectic cast includes Bruce Dern, William Devane, Karen Black and the terrific Barbara Harris.”
• Following the 7 p.m. Jan. 16 screening of the biographical Bob Dylan film “A Complete Unknown” at Princeton Garden Theatre, Princeton University history professor and Dylan expert Sean Wilentz will talk about it and sign copies of his 2010 book, “Bob Dylan in America.” Wilentz received a Grammy nomination for his liner notes to Dylan’s 2004 album, The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall.
“Encanto” will presented as a sing-along at BergenPAC in Englewood.
• The 2021 animated film “Encanto” will be presented as a sing-along at BergenPAC in Englewood, Jan. 12 at 1 and 4 p.m. The film received an Oscar (for Best Animated Feature) as well as three Grammys (Best Score Soundtrack and Best Compilation Soundtrack, as well as Best Song for “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”).
OTHER
• With the Princeton University Art Museum currently being renovated, museum director James Stewart and senior associate director for collections and exhibitions Chris Newth will give a presentation titled “Hidden Stories: Preparing a New Art Museum” at Room 101 of the university’s Friend Center, Jan. 16 at 5:30 p.m. According to the museum, the talk will be about “some of the more complex and challenging moments encountered while preparing the new building for the Princeton University Art Museum. Whether the account be about removing and reinstalling a two-thousand-year-old Roman floor mosaic or the riddle of bringing daylighting into the new conservation center, come hear some of the hidden stories found within and outside the walls of the landmark new Museum.”
The museum will be reopened at some point later this year.
• The Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg is presenting an exhibition, “Anne Frank in Translation,” through May 15. According to the Institute, it “illuminates the process of Holocaust commemoration and the role played by editors, publishers, translators, playwrights, curators, composers, and performers through the preservation and publication of Anne Frank’s story as shared in her well-known diary.”
In connection with the exhibition:
(1) There will be a free “virtual opening,” Jan. 17 at 10 a.m., featuring Adina Langer (senior curator for museums, archives and rare books at Kennesaw State University in Georgia) in a discussion about it.
(2) Jan. 30 at 1 p.m., the Institute will screen the Holocaust-released 2024 film, “White Bird: A Wonder Story,” featuring Helen Mirren, Gillian Anderson and others.
(3) March 4 at 10 a.m., The Bright Star Theatre Company will present a free production of “The Story of Anne Frank,” onstage at RVCC and online.
There is no charge to visit the exhibition or attend any of the related events.
REVIEWS
“Kimberly Camp – Cross River: A Parallel Universe” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. (Through Jan. 12)
“New Sculpture/New Jersey” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Feb. 2)
“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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