NJArts.net

Louis C.K. still going in wrong direction with comeback film 'Fourth of July'

Louis C.K. is making a return to films with “Fourth of July.” Louis C.K. wants a sequel. The edgy comic’s last movie, “I Love You, Daddy,” opened back in 2017. Or, rather, almost opened. Hours before the film’s scheduled premiere, the star became one of the early, prominent, publicly called-out villains of the #MeToo movement, accused of exposing himself and masturbating in front of multiple women. Although critics’ screenings had already been held, the red-carpet event was cancelled. Publicity campaigns were dropped. Ultimately, the picture was never released at all, with Louis C.K buying it ...

Top 10 Arts Events of Week: Southside Johnny, Flo Rida, 'Much Ado About Nothing,' more

DANNY CLINCH Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes will perform at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, July 2. Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around the state, through July 8. MUSIC • In an annual Fourth of July Week tradition, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes will perform at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, July 2 at 5:30 p.m. E Street Band member Jack Clemons (Clarence Clemons’ nephew) will open on the outdoor Summer Stage, while Clarence Clemons’ son Jarod Clemons and the Bruce Springsteen tribute band The Promised Land will perform inside the Stone Pony, ...

Tedeschi Trucks Band film project to have theatrical premiere at The Clairidge in Montclair

Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, center, with their Tedeschi Trucks Band. Members of The Tedeschi Trucks Band will attend the theatrical premiere of the first two episodes of their film and music project, “I Am the Moon,” July 5 at 8 p.m. at The Clairidge in Montclair. They will also participate with a post-screening Q&A session. For tickets and information, visit theclairidge.org. According to a press release, “I Am the Moon” is “an epic undertaking in four albums, four films, and 24 original songs … [i]nspired by a mythic Persian tale of star-crossed lovers and emotionally driven by the isol...

Garrison Keillor books October show in At the Tabernacle series in Parsippany

GARRISON KEILLOR Garrison Keillor — the author, raconteur and longtime host of the syndicated radio show “A Prairie Home Companion” — will appear at the At the Tabernacle series at the Mt. Tabor Tabernacle in Parsippany, Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale July 1 at 9 a.m.; visit atthetabernacle.com. The show is described in an At the Tabernacle mailing as “An intimate evening of stand-up, storytelling, sonnets, limericks, audience participation and poetry” and, as he did weekly on “A Prairie Home Companion,” Keillor will offer a “News From Lake Wobegon” segment, telling stories about those...

Gary Frost pays tribute to The Boss in roundabout way in 'Shutup Springsteen' single

The cover of Gary Frost’s single, “Shutup Springsteen.” In 2017 and 2018, I did a two-part series on songs about Bruce Springsteen — 40 songs in which he’s the subject, or at least mentioned in the lyrics, the most famous one undoubtedly being Eric Church’s “Springsteen.” Here are links to Part 1 and Part 2. And now here is another one: “Shutup Springsteen,” a country ballad by Colts Neck’s Gary Frost. You can watch the video for it below. Don’t be misled by the title. Frost has nothing against Springsteen himself. It’s just that he’s tortured by thoughts of an ex-girlfriend, and when he hears...

'The Pin-Up Girls': An old-fashioned show-biz salute to the troops

From left, Brittany Jeffery, Pheonix Vaughn, A.J. Melnick and Sara Glancy co-star in “The Pin-Up Girls” at NJ Repertory Company in Long Branch. As old VFW Hall is being cleaned out, before closing, and a treasure trove of letters, to and from many generations of soldiers, is found. So the granddaughter of the Hall’s longtime commander and three of her friends have a “Let’s put on a show!” moment: They assemble a revue where they read excerpts from the letters and sing songs that are associated, in many cases, with American wars, or have some other kind of historical resonance. That is the prem...

Doc Holiday's Sept. Stone Pony concert to feature Garry Tallent, Vini Lopez, others

Garry Tallent and Vini Lopez will both perform at Doc Holiday’s Sept. 22 concert at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. Original E Street Band members Garry Tallent and Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez will both participate in a Sept. 22 concert at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park featuring Doc Holiday and his Nashville Sony Studio A Team & Friends. “They come back where it all started,” says a promotional photo collage Holiday posted on his Facebook page. Singer Leon Trent, formerly of the group The Broadways and now part of the duo Waterfront, will also perform, as will singer Nicky Addeo, and Sammy Dale will b...

The new Asbury Park Theater Company will launch with 'Green Day's American Idiot'

The Asbury Park Theater Company will present “Green Day’s American Idiot” in July. The new Asbury Park Theater Company will kick off its first, three-show season with the rock musical “Green Day’s American Idiot” at the Kingsley Theater at The Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel in Asbury Park, July 1-3 and 8-10. For tickets, visit asburyparktheatercompany.org. Next up will be “Million Dollar Quartet,” the jukebox musical about Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, Dec. 2-4 and 9-11, and then the contemporary drama, “American Son,” in April. “The decision to present (‘Green Day’s...

Springsteen joins McCartney -- again -- at Glastonbury Festival (WATCH VIDEOS)

Paul McCartney\’s co-headlining set at this year’s Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, included guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl. Nine days after making a guest appearance at Paul McCartney’s concert at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Bruce Springsteen did so again June 25 at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, which McCartney was co-headlining. You can watch a video of the performance, below. As he did at MetLife Stadium, Springsteen played his own “Glory Days” with backing from McCartney and McCartney’s band, and also played on a cover of The Beatle...

Actors fill 'Rent' with raw energy at Vanguard Theater in Montclair

PHOTOS BY SPOTLIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY Quincy Hampton, far right, and Michael Jayne Walker, second from right, co-star in “Rent” at the Vanguard Theater in Montclair. Despite the presence of a phone booth onstage — remember those? — “Rent,” in its current run at the Vanguard Theater in Montclair, doesn’t seem dated at all. The late Jonathan Larson’s musical, of course, is more than 25 years old, having debuted of-Broadway in 1996. But with a story inspired by Puccini’s 1896 opera “La Bohème,” and struggling young artists and activists still populating our cities, it seems timeless. Jordan Gold, left,...