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Anders Osborne will perform at this year’s Maplewoodstock festival.
Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through July 16.
MUSIC
• New Orleans-based singer-songwriter Anders Osborne and the funky jam band Lettuce will co-headline this year’s edition of the free, annual Maplewoodstock Festival, taking place at Memorial Park in Maplewood on July 11-12. Also, the Nashville “groove grass” band Slap Dragon and Megan Jean’s Secret Family, featuring singer Megan Jean Klay, are booked as “featured acts” on Day 1 and Day 2, respectively.
Eleven bands will perform, per day, with the music scheduled from noon to 10 p.m. on July 11 and from noon to 9:30 p.m. on July 12.
The festival, which was founded in 2004, features food and art vendors, a beer garden and a Kid Zone in addition to the music. In honor of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States, this year, there will also be an art gallery with the theme of “Independence: Your Story — An Artistic Spin on 250 Years.”
• B-52s members Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider — who are both New Jersey natives — and the Jersey-bred band Dramarama will be inducted into the Walk of Fame at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank. Pierson and Schneider will be honored at a ceremony at the Basie, July 10 at noon; that is a day before the concert that The B-52s will headline and Dramarama will open at ParkStage in Freehold, July 11 at 7 p.m. Dramarama will be presented with a commemorative plaque at the concert.
Previous Walk of Fame inductees include the late Count Basie, Jon Bon Jovi, Darlene Love and The Smithereens.
ROBYN VON SWANK
“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC
• “Weird Al” Yankovic — the biggest-selling comedy recording artist, ever, and the subject of the 2022 film “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” — has extended his 2025 Bigger & Weirder Tour into 2026, with stops including The PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, July 12 at 7:30 p.m.; and The Event Center at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, July 17 at 8 p.m. Puddles Pity Party will open both shows.
“We did 75 shows this year, and the fans weren’t sick of us yet, so we’re just going to keep on touring until they are!” said Yankovic in a press release, when the tour was announced in November.
• A free concert, “Songs of Freedom: An Evening of Popular, Classic, Protest Songs,” will be presented at The Sinatra Park Amphitheater in Hoboken, July 16 at 7 p.m. There will be no admission charge.
Performers will include Freedy Johnston, Eddie Skuller, Charlie Nieland, David Calamoneri, Jaime Della Fave, Danny Shot, Ed Fogarty, Mike Tichy, Bill McGarvey, Wendy Joyner, Abbe Rivers, Annalee Van Kleeck, Jeremy Beck, Julio Fernandez, The Gefkens, Tom Vincent and The Jersey City Resistance Choir. The ICE Breakers house band will include Ben Butler, Dave Post, Art Desimine, Dave Stengel and others.
• New York-based Teatro Nuovo will perform Mozart’s “Il Don Giovanni” and Rossini’s “Il Turco in Italia,” July 11-12 at The Kasser Theater at Montclair State University, and July 15-16 at The Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. Click HERE for a new interview with Teatro Nuovo’s general and artistic director Will Crutchfield about the works.
• Michael Allman (Gregg Allman’s son) and his band, The Alexis P. Suter Band, Tommy Conwell & the HouseRockers and Deb Callahan will be among the performers at The Anglesea Blues Festival, taking place at The Anglesea Entertainment District in North Wildwood, July 10-12.
The event is held in conjunction with The New Jersey State Barbecue Championship, and there is no admission charge.
VALERIE TERRANOVA PHOTOGRAHY
Valerie Terranova as Hamlet, at Luna Stage in West Orange.
THEATER
• Luna Stage, which presented an abridged, five-actor version of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” in February and March, will mount it again, outdoors at Monte Irvin Park in Orange, July 10 and 17 at 8 p.m.; Metcalf Park in Orange, July 11 and 18 at 8 p.m.; Colgate Park in Orange, July 12 and 19 at 7 p.m.; and Mayapple Hill at South Mountain Reservation in West Orange, July 16 at 8 p.m.. There will be six actors this time, though.
There will be no admission charge.
Valerie Terranova, who played the title character in the earlier production, will reprise the role. Read my review from March, HERE.
• The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey will present “Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery,” at its F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University in Madison, from July 11 to Aug. 2.
In a 2015 review of the play at The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, I wrote that “This Sherlock Holmes doesn’t scowl. Or, if he does, it’s only for comic effect, with a mischievous laugh soon to follow. … (Ludwig) reinterprets the famous Holmes novel, ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles,’ as a breezy romp. … This new play … is, in the spirit of the current Broadway hit ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder,’ a dark story, cleverly and humorously told, and ingeniously staged.”
ALEX DAWSON
• Alex Dawson has presented his “The Devil and Daisy Dirt,” which he describes as “a bluegrass tall tale about the Jersey Devil,” at venues throughout the state, and will now premiere a new work, “Room to Swing an Ax,” at The Old Franklin Schoolhouse in Metuchen, July 10 at 7:30 p.m. and July 11-12 at 3 p.m. Dawson wrote the book and lyrics, while Arlan Feiles composed the music, and the work will be performed by both.
Dawson calls the piece an “Audio-Biography/Southern Gothic Song Cycle.”
In it, according to a press release, he and Feiles “use spoken word and ten biographical ballads to pull you through the mud and blood of Dawson’s harsh but magical life on a haunted horse farm in rural Alabama. Beginning with the morning his stepdad, a rancher named Doc, hit him in the head with a 5-pound Fireside Friend; ending with the old man dead, buried by bucket loader, among his horses, whose legs had to be chainsawed off before they could be dug in. There are witches in the woods, snakes in the lake, ghosts in the barn, and trapped in every bent tree is the soul of someone who died wrong. Big Fish meets Blaze Foley.”
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT
• New Jersey Symphony will kick off its new Symphony in the Stacks series, July 15 at 4 p.m. at the Glen D. Cunnigham Branch of The Jersey City Free Public Library. This is a chamber music series that is free, though registration is required.
The July 15 show is designed for pre-schoolers, and will feature trio versions of standards such as “The Wheels on the Bus” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
There are 10 shows in the series, divided between five branches of Jersey City Free Public Library. Each show will have a different theme.
The cover of “Positively Fourth and Mercer.”
WORDS
• Allan Pepper, co-owner of the nightclub The Bottom Line, will talk about his 2025 book “Positively Fourth and Mercer: The Inside Story of New York’s Iconic Music Club, The Bottom Line,” July 15 at 7 p.m. at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair. Co-author Billy Altman will also participate in the event, and veteran radio DJ Jerry Treacy will moderate.
The nightclub was a staple of the Downtown New York music scene from 1974 to 2004, and hosted legendary shows by Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Laura Nyro, David Johansen, Harry Chapin, Flo & Eddie and others.
“Stanley and I envisioned it as a new concept for presenting live music,” said Pepper in a press release, speaking about himself and the club’s co-owner, the late Stanley Snadowsky. “We were always confident we could make that a reality, but what we had no way of predicting was the lasting impact this little club would have on New York’s music scene or the history of popular music. That’s the story we are telling with this book.”
• Stewart Copeland, a Rock and Roll Hall and Famer as the drummer in the band The Police, will give a talk titled “Have I Said Too Much?,” July 16 at 7:30 p.m. at The South Orange Performing Arts Center. He will talk about both his years with The Police and his other musical experiences, which have included composing music for film, TV, operas, ballets and more. (see video below)
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REVIEWS
“Willem de Kooning: The Breakthrough Years, 1945–50” at Princeton University Art Museum. (Through July 26)
“Allan Rohan Crite: Neighborhood” at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. (Through July 31)
“Faig Ahmed: Textiles of Consciousness,” presented by Princeton University Art Museum at Art @ Bainbridge. (Through Aug. 2)
“Henri Matisse: Beyond Color” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Aug. 9)
“In Conversation: Will Wilson” at Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit. (Through Aug. 23)
“Salvador Jiménez-Flores: Raíces & Resistencias” at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. (Through Aug. 1, 2027)
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