Top 15 NJ Arts Events of the Week: Exit Zero Jazz Festival, ‘Love in Hate Nation,’ more

Michael and Tanya Trotter, better known as The War and Treaty, will perform at the Exit 0 Jazz Festival in Cape May.

A roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through Nov. 13:

POP/ROCK/FOLK/JAZZ

• Vocal groups The Manhattan Transfer and Take 6, the duo The War and Treaty, saxophonist David Sanborn and a centennial celebration of Art Blakey will be among the attractions at the fall edition of the biannual Exit 0 Jazz Festival, taking place in theaters, bars and restaurants throughout Cape May, Nov. 7-10. Other performers will include Gerald Veasley’s Electric Mingus Project, John Oates’ Good Road Band, Bria Skonberg, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Emmaline, Daisy Castro and The Bad Plus. Click here for the complete schedule and a video preview.

• Pig Gig V, the fifth annual pig roast and benefit concert organized by Asbury Jukes guitar virtuoso Glenn Alexander, will feature Alexander and his blues-soul-rock band, Shadowland, as well as the roots-rock band The Lonesome Pines and a guest appearance by Alexander’s boss, Southside Johnny. It will take place Nov. 10 from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Italian American Hall in Scotch Plains, the town in which Kansas native Alexander now lives. Proceeds will go to the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation in honor of Alexander’s nephew, Jay, who died in 2011 from the rare disease, at the age of 20.

• NJProghouse, an organization devoted to promoting prog-rock and prog-metal in the Garden State, will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a “Fall Hootenanny” at Roxy and Dukes Roadhouse in Dunellen, Nov. 9-10. Performers will include Crosswalk Anarchy, Advent, Orpheus Nine, Valdez and Discipline, Nov. 9 at 11 a.m., and Laura Meade, The Yellow Box, Infinien, Frogg Cafe and Tom Brislin, Nov. 10 at noon.

DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND

• New Orleans’ Dirty Dozen Brass Band, a fixture of the city’s music scene since the 1970s, performs at the Outpost in the Burbs in Montclair, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m., with the Montclair-based Jazz House Kids Organ Ambassadors opening. The show takes place at the First Congregational Church at 40 S. Fullerton Ave.

• Last year, a Roy Orbison hologram tour came to New Jersey. And this year, the hologram will be back, with some company: A tour featuring holograms of both Orbison and Buddy Holly, titled the Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream Tour, will come to the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m., and the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. Holly and Orbison knew each other in the ’50s, and Holly recorded two songs co-written by Orbison, “You’ve Got Love” and “An Empty Cup (and a Broken Date).”

• The Campfire Flies — the a folk-rock supergroup featuring members of The Cucumbers, Speed the Plough and The Thousand Pities — will perform in the Rent Party concert series at The Woodland in Maplewood, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m., on a triple bill with The Schramms (led by frequent Yo La Tengo collaborator Dave Schramm) and Tri-State. Like all Rent Party events, this one will raise money to fight hunger in the local community.

• Five extremely talented mainstays of the folk circuit and longtime friends with each other — Christine Lavin, John Gorka, Cheryl Wheeler, Patty Larkin and Cliff Eberhardt — are teaming up for a tour titled “On a Winter’s Night,” which comes to the South Orange Performing Arts Center, Nov. 8; the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood, Nov. 15; and the Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, Nov. 16. All shows are at 8 p.m.

LAWRENCE TSANG

NING FENG

CLASSICAL

• “Spanish- and French-Inspired Showpieces” is the theme of New Jersey Symphony Orchestra concerts at Prudential Hall at NJPAC, Nov. 9 at 8 p.m., and the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Nov. 10 at 3 p.m. Xian Zhang will conduct and Ning Feng will be featured on violin on a program that will include Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol; Qigang Chen’s La joie de la souffrance for Violin and Orchestra (an NJSO co-commission, making its United States premiere); Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso; and Falla’s Suite No. 2 from The Three-Cornered Hat.

DANCE

• The Landmark Loew’s Theater in Jersey City will be the main site of the 10th annual Your Move Modern Dance Festival, with performances there Nov. 13-15 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 17 at 2 p.m., as well as a party and panel discussion at Art House Productions in Jersey City, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. Featured choreographers will include 78 Moves (Nov. 14 and 17), Chaery Moon (Nov. 13 and 15), Claire Porter/PORTABLES (Nov. 13 and 15), Dalit Agronin (Nov. 14 and 17), Elena Notkina (Nov. 13 and 15), Hyunsang Cho (Nov. 13 and 15), Katelyn Halpern & Dancers (Nov. 14 and 17), Kristi Cole (Nov. 13 and 15), mignolo dance (Nov. 14 and 17), Morgaine De Leonardis (Nov. 13 and 15), Oluwadamilare (Dare) Ayorinde (Nov. 14 and 17), Paul Pinto (Nov. 14 and 17), Ross Daniel Dance (Nov. 14 and 17) and Sophia Zukoski (Nov. 13 and 15)

THEATER

• The rock musical “Love in Hate Nation” will make its world premiere at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, with previews beginning on Nov. 9, the official opening night on Nov. 15 and the last performance on Dec. 1. The book, music and lyrics are by Joe Iconis, who wrote the music and lyrics for “Be More Chill,” which premiered at the Two River Theater in 2015 and ran on Broadway this year, with a film currently in development. (see video below)

• A touring version of “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” which ended a five-year run on Broadway last month, comes to the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Nov. 8-9 at 8 p.m., Nov. 9-10 at 2 p.m., and Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. The musical tells King’s story, featuring songs written or co-written by her (including “You’ve Got a Friend,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “So Far Away” and “I Feel the Earth Movie”) as well as other classic tunes of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

• The Company Theatre Group will present the courtroom drama “12 Angry Men” — a 1954 television play that was later adapted for the stage and made into a feature film starring Henry Fonda — Nov. 8-9 and 15-16 at 8 p.m., and Nov. 10 and 17 at 3 p.m. at the Hackensack Performing Arts Center. The cast will include four artistic director from other professional theaters: Carl Wallnau of Centenary Stage Company as Juror No. 8 (the Fonda role), Frank Licato of Hudson Theatre Works, Paul Whelihan of Pushcart Players and Michael Bias of Garage Theatre.

TONI MORRISON, 1931-2019

OTHER

• Choreographer Bill T. Jones and photographer Deana Lawson will participate in a conversation about the late Toni Morrison with Tracy K. Smith — a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who is a former United States Poet Laureate and the current Chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University — Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Princeton’s Richardson Auditorium. There is no admission charge, though tickets are required. The event, which will also feature a jazz performance by the Rudresh Mahanthappa Tiger Quartet, is the first in a series that is titled “The Toni Morrison Conversations”; other events are being planned for Feb. 4 and April 28.

• The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey at Drew University in Madison will present a special event, “Renaissance Runway,” Nov. 13 at 7 p.m., in which some of the theater’s favorite costumes will be shown, and the theater’s costume designers will talk about their work. It takes place on the set of “Romeo and Juliet,” which runs at the theater through Nov. 17.

• Joe Rapolla, a singer-songwriter as well as a professor at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, will give a free talk on the subject, “A Change Is Gonna Come: Protest Music From the 1960s to Now,” Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. at the Two River Theater in Red Bank.