Top 10 NJ Arts Events of Week: Tears for Fears, State Fair Meadowlands, Jubilation, more

by JAY LUSTIG
tears for fears preview

FRANK OCKENFELS

Tears for Fears (Curt Smith, left, and Roland Orzabal) performs at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, June 24.

Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through June 23.

MUSIC

• Tears for Fears are following their first studio album in 18 years — The Tipping Point, which came out in February — with a tour that hits the Northeast this week, with 7:30 p.m. shows at the TD Pavilion at The Mann in Philadelphia, June 21; the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, June 24; and the Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, N.Y., June 25. The band Garbage will open.

The British duo (Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith) was most popular in the ’80s, with hits such as “Shout,” “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Head Over Heels” and “Sowing the Seeds of Love.”

You can listen to the album’s title track and first single below.

For nearly 25 years, the choir known as Jubilation has been a vital part of the New Jersey gospel scene, presenting concerts all over the state and beyond, and performing with artists such as Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick and Queen Latifah. Its founder and leader, the Rev. Stefanie Minatee, is retiring, and the choir will celebrate that milestone with a concert at the Greater Abyssinian Baptist Church in Newark, June 18 at 3 p.m. There will be no admission charge, but freewill offerings will be accepted.

The concert will also be streamed on the group’s Facebook page.

As part of the American Song series at the Victoria Theater at NJPAC in Newark, “Conversations in Concert: Celebrating the Songs of Leonard Bernstein,” taking place at 7:30 p.m. June 17, will feature jazz pianist Bill Charlap playing Bernstein-written songs from musicals such as “West Side Story,” “Candide” and “On the Town.” Also, Bernstein’s daughter Jamie Bernstein (whose 2019 memoir was titled “Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein”) will engage in a conversation about him with the series’ host, Ted Chapin.

PRINCETON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA STAFF PHOTO

From left, Nicholas Nestorak, Cody Muller and Kelly Guerra in “Scalia/Ginsburg.”

Derrick Wang’s 2015 comic opera “Scalia/Ginsburg” — about the late Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who both happened to be opera lovers — was presented at a performance tent at the Morven Museum & Garden in Princeton, June 11-12, as part of the Princeton Festival, and there will be one more show, June 18 at 7 p.m. Kelly Guerra and Nicholas Nestorak will co-star as Ginsburg and Scalia, respectively, and members of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra will perform the music. Mozart’s “The Impresario” will also be performed.

In a separate but related event, poet Nicole Homer will read works inspired by “Scalia/Ginsburg” at the museum’s Stockton Education Center, June 18 at 3 p.m.

Martin Pizzarelli, the bass-playing son of the late Bucky Pizzarelli, will perform jazz with a group titled Martin Pizzarelli & Friends, outdoors at the Morris Museum in Morris Township, June 23 at 8 p.m. Joining him will be pianist John DiMartino, saxophonist/clarinetist Linus Wyrsch, guitarist David O’Rourke, drummer Karl Latham and singer Cydney Halpin.

The Hunterdon Symphony, which will be traveling to Austria later this month for a series of concerts, will perform the program they will be presenting there in a free concert at Deer Path Park in Flemington, June 23 at 7 p.m., as part of the Music Under the Stars series. Selections will include music by Beethoven, Sibelius, Still, Dvorak, Schubert and Copland, and a new arrangement of Mykola Leontovych’s “Shchedryk” by the Symphony’s conductor, Lawrence Kursar.

A poster for the movie “The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain.”

FILM

Actor Frankie Faison (“The Wire,” “Banshee”) will participate in a talkback following the free screening of the movie “The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain” at Luna Stage in West Orange, June 18 at 3 p.m. Faison plays the title character of the based-on-a-true-story film, about an elderly African-American veteran with bipolar disorder who was killed by police in White Plains, N.Y. Chamberlain’s son, activist Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., will also participate in the talkback.

THEATER

As the start of their summer season, Plays-in-the-Park will present “Something Rotten!” at the outdoor Stephen J. Capestro Theater in Roosevelt Park in Edison, New Jersey, June 22-25 and 27-30 and July 1-2 at 8 p.m. The musical comedy, about two contemporaries of Shakespeare who attempt to compete with The Bard, ran on Broadway from 2015 to 2017 and was nominated for 10 Tonys.

As it does annually, Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken — the city where the first officially recorded game of baseball was played — will present a show titled “7th Inning Stretch,” June 17 at 8 p.m. and June 18 at 7 p.m. Each night will feature seven new short plays that are about baseball in some way, written by Jeffrey Cranor, Kevin R. Free, Chris O’Connor, Stephen Kaplan, Joi Danielle Price, Mick Hilgers and Akin Salawu.

FAMILY

State Fair Meadowlands opens in East Rutherford on June 23 and runs through July 10, with the usual rides, carnival games and food, plus offerings such as the Jurassic Kingdom Lockdown dinosaur show, the Pirates of the Colombian Caribbean high wire act, Cycle Circus motocross exhibitions, hypnotist Steve Bayner, illusionist Josh Knotts, magician Lance Gifford, a petting zoo and more, plus fireworks on July 3-4 only.

REVIEWS

“Sister Act” at Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn. (Through June 26)

“Tenacity & Resilience: The Art of Jerry Pinkney” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through June 26)

“Ecstatic Decrepitude,” works by Peter Schumann at ArtYard, Frenchtown. (Through July 31)

“Maxwell Mustardo: Dish-Oriented” at Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton. (Through Sept. 4)

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