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Daily Edition 04-05-26

Here is the morning update from New Jersey's arts newswire. We regularly publish between 8-15 new articles and news reports each day. Nobody covers the Arts throughout the Garden State like New Jersey Stage!



 

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The The Band Band presents The Last Walz Celebration 50th Anniversary 2026 Tour at The Newton Theatre

(NEWTON, NJ) -- The The Band Band presents The Last Walz Celebration 50th Anniversary 2026 Tour at The Newton Theatre on Saturday, June 27, 2026. Doors are at 7:00pm; showtime is 8:00pm.



Centenary Stage Company presents free Staged Reading of "Breeders"

(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) -- Centenary Stage Company presents Breeders as part of its Women Playwrights Series (WPS), with a free staged reading on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in the Sitnik Theatre of the Centenary University campus, located at 715 Grand Avenue in Hackettstown. Showtime is 7:00pm.



Emerging Artists Theatre's Spark Theatre Festival NYC Celebrates 20th Anniversary

(NEW YORK, NY) -- Award-winning Emerging Artists Theatre (EAT) returns with their bi-annual Spark Theatre Festival NYC, on Monday, April 6 and runs until April 26, 2026 at The 28th Street Theatre (TADA). The three-week festival will showcase over 60 new works in progress, including musicals, plays, solo performances, storytelling, and dance. Theatre luminaries such as TV comedy icon Joyce Bulifant, Tony Award nominee Christopher Sieber, and Emmy Award winner Dorothy Lyman will take part in the Spring Spark Theatre Festival NYC.



Lantern Theater Company Announces 2026-27 Season

(PHILADELPHIA, PA) -- Lantern Theater Company has announced its upcoming 2026-27 season, which will mark the company's 33rd year of bringing great stories from great writers to Philadelphia and beyond. The season showcases four extraordinary plays from renowned playwrights, past and present.










EVENT PREVIEWS

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Prudential Center presents B2K and Bow Wow

(NEWARK, NJ) -- The Black Promoters Collective presents B2K and Bow Wow with The Boys 4 Life at The Prudential Center on Sunday, April 5, 2026. The lineup also includes Amerie, Yung Joc, Crime Mob, Franchize Boyz with special guests Pretty Ricky.


NJPAC presents a Spring Season of Jazz

(NEWARK, NJ) -- New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) presents a Spring Season of Jazz with free monthly jazz jams at Clement's Place and two special concert events inside the Victoria Theater. This series, running from September through June, is co-presented by NJPAC's Jazz Advisory Committee and Rutgers University–Newark's Institute of Jazz Studies (IJS). Immerse yourself in the relaxing sounds of jazz music that stimulate the players’ and listeners' minds.


Morven Museum & Garden's Grand Homes & Gardens returns with a new series for America's 250th

(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Morven Museum & Garden's popular speaker series Grand Homes & Gardens returns for 2026. Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Freedom at Home: Telling the Full Story of America's Founding Homes and Gardens examines four estates belonging to five signers of the Declaration: William Paca, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Thomas Jefferson, and Arthur Middleton.


Faith and Frosting Collide in "The Cake" at Bergen County Players

(ORADELL, NJ) -- Enjoy a touching and topical dramedy as love clashes with conscience in Bergen County Players' (BCP) production of The Cake. The play, written by Bekah Brunstetter, producer/writer for the hit TV series This Is Us, is directed by Carol Fisher of Teaneck. It opens March 14 and runs through April 11, 2026 at the Little Firehouse Theatre in Oradell.


Morven Museum & Garden's Annual Plant Sale is Open Through April 7

(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Each year, plant lovers look forward to Morven Museum & Garden's annual plant sale, which features a diverse selection of in-demand, unique, and hard-to-find items, including seedlings from the historic garden! Now through April 7, Morven hosts their annual online plant sale, an affordable selection of flowers, vegetables, herbs, trees, shrubs, and more.


Arden Theatre Company presents a Bold New Take on "Romeo and Juliet"

(PHILADELPHIA, PA) -- Philadelphia-based Arden Theatre Company presents Romeo and Juliet from March 5 through April 5, 2026 on the F. Otto Haas Stage. Directed by Barrymore Award–winning director Amina Robinson, the production offers a bold and resonant vision of Shakespeare's iconic work. This reimagined work breathes new life into a story that confronts cycles of violence, power, and lost innocence, blending contemporary perspectives with classic Shakespearean elements.







LATEST FEATURES

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New Release Review - "The Mortuary Assistant"
After decades of failures, video game adaptations are suddenly a hit at the box office, with screen translations of such heavy hitters as Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog and Minecraft among the biggest earners of recent years. Just as there are cult movies, there are cult video games. Take The Mortuary Assistant, in which the player takes on the icky job of the title and attempts to finish their night shift at a morgue while evading demons. With another cult horror game, Five Nights at Freddy's, spawning two hit movies, it's no surprise that The Mortuary Assistant has now received a cinematic adaptation.



Titus Andronicus – Revenge is Served

It is said that Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare's bloodiest and goriest play. There are schools of thought that this was his first tragedy and one that is not based on historic precedents or sources. Instead, it is an original play with a double revenge narrative. One can picture an audience in the late 1500's coming to the theater to see this play and how they might be entertained by all of this. Remarkably, elements of what make up the story are still very much in our world today. It is just that we might represent it differently than Shakespeare did in his writing.




Rick Wakeman LIVE! at bergenPAC

Spotlight Central and Love Imagery have photos and a recap of Wakeman and Son at bergenPAC on March 25, 2026.




Bassist Martin Wind Adds Piano to His Gravity Trio for Area Performances

German-born bassist and composer Martin Wind has built an extensive résumé with more than 20 albums as a leader or co-leader and performance credits with legends such as clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, guitarist Pat Metheny, alto saxophonist Phil Woods, harmonicist Toots Thielemans, and many others. He has regularly performed at some of the top jazz venues in the world. Upcoming performances include release performances for his newest record September (2026, Laika Records) with his Gravity Trio and special guest Glenn Zaleski on piano -- April 9 at Smalls Jazz Club in New York; April 10 at the Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck, NJ; and at the Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap, PA, April 11.




PHOTOS from "1776" at Paper Mill Playhouse

(MILLBURN, NJ) -- Paper Mill Playhouse celebrates our nation's 250th anniversary, and history comes to life in 1776, the Tony Award-winning musical that brings the story behind the creation of the Declaration of Independence to the stage with witty satire, compelling drama, and a thrilling score. The production runs now through May 2, 2026. Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade was on hand to take photos.




New Release Review - "Pretty Lethal"

Pitting teenage ballerinas against heavily armed Hungarian mobsters, Pretty Lethal gives new meaning to the term "balletic violence." It's a throwback to all those '70s/'80s exploitation thrillers in which stranded cheerleaders were menaced by mouth-breathing rednecks. Surprisingly for a movie debuting on a mainstream streaming service in 2026, it carries over the extreme violence of those movies, along with the threat of sexualised violence, but its tongue is firmly in its cheek.




Jersey Arts Podcast: The Gateway Playhouse Offers a Full Slate of Musicals and More

It is a big year for the Gateway Playhouse in Somers Point as they near their 10th Anniversary Season, but as they brace for that landmark next summer, they are offering a plethora of opportunities to their community and hopefully to you in the meanwhile.




Five-time GRAMMY Winner Angélique Kidjo Comes to McCarter Theatre Center on April 11th

(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Five-time GRAMMY Award winner Angélique Kidjo comes to McCarter Theatre Center on Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 7:30pm for an electrifying evening of music spanning her extraordinary career. The performance is part of a limited six-city U.S. tour before Kidjo continues to Europe for a series of international festival appearances.










UPCOMING EVENTS

George Street Playhouse presents "What Became of Us"

Sunday, April 05, 2026 @ 2:00pm
New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC)
New Brunswick, NJ
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




LATEST COLUMNS
The Makin Waves Song of the Week is "Promises" from Jersey Shore-based roots rocker Dave Vargo's latest album, "Ghost Towns."



Rock On! This Week's Sound Bites... 04/02/2026

"Yeah, we are looking forward to it," said guitarist Johnny A of The Johnny A Trio just prior to their recent New York City Iridium appearance.



Winifred McNeill: "Between Air and Earth"

Any good cook will tell you that reducing something doesn't always mean diminishing it. Sometimes it's the best way to intensify its personality. Size, we've learned in the era of streaming entertainment on tiny phone screens, does not determine how clearly a thing communicates. If it fills our senses, it can slip right into our bloodstream.


* Events This Week in New Jersey

* This Week in Music

* This Week in Theatre

* Top 15 Most Read Stories
from the Past Week



DAILY EDITION

Daily Edition 04-05-26

New Jersey Stage

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