INEZ & VINOODH
Cat Power will perform at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Feb. 12.
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Feb. 15.
MUSIC
• On May 17, 1966, Bob Dylan — backed by four future members of The Band (guitarist Robbie Robertson, bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel and organist Garth Hudson) and drummer Mickey Jones — performed at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England. This was during a controversial period when the former folkie had started using electric instrumentation: He played a solo acoustic set and then a full-band set, and during the latter, an audience member infamously yelled out “Judas!”
A widely heard bootleg misidentified the location at Royal Albert Hall in London, and in 1998, Dylan himself released the concert recording as a double album, The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert.
In November 2022, singer-songwriter Cat Power reproduced the concert in its mesmerizing entirety (complete with the “Judas!” yell) at Royal Albert Hall. And in November 2023, she released the recording of that concert as the album, Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert. She will now perform the 1966 concert’s 15 songs on a tour of her own that will start at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Check out a video of her performing “Like a Rolling Stone” on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” below.
STEVIE NICKS
• Stevie Nicks will perform at The Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, Feb. 10 at 8 p.m., with Nicole Atkins opening. In 2019, Nicks became the first woman to be inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice (as a member of Fleetwood Mac, and a solo artist); since then, Carole King and the late Tina Turner have joined her.
• Feb. 10 at 1 p.m., The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music will present a day-long series of panel discussions and interviews celebrating the 50th anniversary of the legendary Asbury Park nightclub The Stone Pony. The event is titled “Spotlighting 50 Legendary Years of Music Memories.” The Archives are based at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, but the event will be presented at The Stone Pony itself.
Participants will include the nightclub’s founder, Jack Roig; musicians Lance Larson (Lord Gunner), Gordon Brown (Mr. Reality, Highway 9, Samhill), Jon Leidersdorff (The Outcry, Blowup), and Harry Filkin and Joel Kraus (Cats on a Smooth Surface); and writers Bob Santelli, Jean Mikle and Nick Corasaniti.
At 7 p.m. Feb. 10, The Stone Pony will present a concert celebrating the anniversary titled “Decades of Rock,” which will feature the bands Karmic Juggernaut, Des & the Swagmatics, Lost in Society and Foes of Fern performing music of the ’70s, the ’80s, the ’90s and the ’00s, respectively.
The American Patchwork Quartet (from left, Yasushi Nakamura, Clay Ross, Falu and Clarence Penn).
• The American Patchwork Quartet (singer-guitarist Clay Ross, singer Falu, drummer Clarence Penn and bassist Yasushi Nakamura) will perform at The Berlind Theater at The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. Their group’s name refers to the fact that each band member has a different cultural background.
Listen, below, to their version of the bluegrass standard “Lazy John,” from their self-titled debut album, which will be released on the day of the Princeton concert.
According to a press release, their goal on the album is to “reinterpret folk songs synonymous with the American experience by incorporating their own American voices — which, in many cases, are voices that wouldn’t have been incorporated when these centuries-old songs were first popularized.”
Kate Baldwin and Graham Rowat.
THEATER
• Two-time Tony nominee Kate Baldwin (“Hello, Dolly!” “Finian’s Rainbow”) and her husband Graham Rowat (whose Broadway credits include “Dear Evan Hansen,” “Meteor Shower” and “Sunset Boulevard”) will co-star in “Love Letters,” presented by Skyline Theatre Company at The Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. In this 1988 play, which was written by A.R. Gurney, a relationship is explored via letters (written by the two characters to each other) that are read by the two actors.
• The State Theatre in New Brunswick will present “The Cher Show” Feb. 9 at 8 p.m., Feb. 10 at 2 and 8 p.m. and Feb. 11 at 1 p.m. The jukebox musical, which ran on Broadway in 2018 and 2019, features three actresses portraying the singer, actress, variety show host and worldwide celebrity at three different phases of her life (’50s/’60s, ’70s, and ’80s/’90s).
• From Feb. 27 to March 17, George Street Playhouse will present the world premiere of Chris Bohjalian’s play “The Club” at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. And Feb. 15 at 7 p.m., The East Brunswick Public Library will host “A Conversation With Chris Bohjalian.” George Street Playhouse artistic director and “The Club” director David Saint will talk with Bohjalian, who is also a novelist (“Midwives,” “The Flight Attendant,” “The Lioness”), about the play, his career and his new novel, “The Princess of Las Vegas.”
The event is free; advance registration is encouraged though not required.
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company performs at NJPAC, Feb. 10-11.
DANCE
• Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will celebrate the Lunar New Year — this year is The Year of the Green Wood Dragon — with shows at The Victoria Theater at NJPAC in Newark, Feb. 10-11 at 2 p.m. The shows will feature both traditional and contemporary dance, and include the premiere of an NJPAC-commissioned work: “Mongolian Festival” by Mongolian dancer-choreographer Lawrence Jin, set to traditional Mongolian music.
FAMILY
• Pushcart Players will present “Lift Every Voice: A Letter to the Editor” at The Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, Feb. 9 at 10 a.m., and The Levoy Theatre in Millville, Feb. 22 at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The play, written by Tylie Shider, is described by Pushcart Players as “a multimedia piece exploring the music, images, and spirit of mid-century America while celebrating the courage and resilience of everyday Americans during the Civil Rights Movement.
“The story centers on Junebug, a 12-year-old boy in the 1960s South, who learns of James Meredith’s attempt to enroll as the first African American at the University of Mississippi. When the editor of The Oxford Eagle, a local newspaper, expresses her negative opinions on integration, Junebug takes matters into his own hands and confronts these views, speaking out for equality and inclusion.”
Philomena Williamson’s “Shore Road” will be part of “Century: 100 Years of Black Art at MAM.”
VISUAL ARTS
• The Montclair Art Museum will present “Century: 100 Years of Black Art at MAM” from Feb. 9 to June 23. According to the museum’s website, the exhibit “celebrates the dramatic growth of MAM’s collection of works by Black artists at Montclair Art Museum” and “features the depth, breadth, and variety of art by African Americans during the past century.”
COMEDY
• Actor, comedian and frequent “The Howard Stern Show” guest Michael Rapaport will headline “Stand-Up for the Arts,” a benefit for arts-related, mission-driven activities at The Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly that will take place Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. at the JCC’s Taub Auditorium. Sarge the Comedian and Olga Namer also will perform.
REVIEWS
“After Midnight” at Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn. (Through Feb. 25)
“Afrofuturism: 100 Years After the Harlem Renaissance” at The Gallery at Paper Mill, Millburn. (Through Feb. 26)
“Night Forms” at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. (Through April 7)
“George Inness: Visionary Landscapes” at Montclair Art Museum. (Through June 30)
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