Willem de Kooning exhibition, Ravi Shankar Ensemble, more

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Here is a roundup of major arts events taking place around New Jersey, through March 19.

VISUAL ARTS

• “Willem de Kooning: The Breakthrough Years, 1945–50” will open at The Princeton University Art Museum on March 15 and run through July 26, with a members preview day on March 14. It includes 18 paintings from the museum’s collection as well as other museums and private collections and is, according to the museum’s website, “the first exhibition to focus on the enormously generative and creative period that surrounded de Kooning’s full-scale debut in the New York art world.” De Kooning had his first solo exhibition in 1948.

The exhibition “invites visitors to witness a pivotal moment in art history — the development of Abstract Expressionism at just the moment when the art world was re-centering itself in New York in the wake of World War II,” said museum director James Steward in a press release.

JACKIE GREENE

MUSIC

• An all-star band will play the music of George Harrison at The Newton Theatre, March 12 at 8 p.m., and at The Tarrytown Music Hall, March 15 at 7 p.m., in a show titled “All You Need Is George.” The show will include songs from Harrison’s solo career as well as from his albums with The Beatles and The Traveling Wilburys, though the setlist may venture further afield as well: A recent show included “It Don’t Come Easy” (co-written by Harrison and Ringo Starr and recorded by Starr) and “Badge” (co-written by Harrison and Eric Clapton and recorded by Cream).

The band will include Jackie Greene (guitar and vocals), Steve Kimock (lead guitar), Pete Lavezzoli (drums and vocals), Berry Duane Oakley (bass and vocals) and Gil Assayas (keyboards and vocals). Check out their version of “Taxman,” below.

• The Ravi Shankar Ensemble — which plays material from the repertoire of the sitar master and composer, who died in 2012 at the age of 92 — will bring its first United States tour to The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, March 18 at 7:30 p.m.

The sextet’s music is curated by Shankar’s widow, Sukanya Shankar, and daughter, Anoushka Shankar. And one of Shankar’s nieces, Padma Shankar, plays violin and sings in the group. The show will incorporate “visual elements from the Ravi Shankar archives,” according to the McCarter website.

• Ever since Southside Johnny retired from touring in late 2024, the three-piece Asbury Jukes horn section has continued to perform together, occasionally. And they will do so again, March 14 at 8 p.m., as part of Jukes guitarist Glenn Alexander’s Shadowland band — who play a dynamic mix of blues, rock and soul music — at Tim McLoone’s Supper Club in Asbury Park.

The band will feature another ex-Juke, as a guest, as well: keyboardist-vocalist Bobby Lynch.

Click HERE to read a new interview with Alexander.

FRANCIS JUE

THEATER

• Francis Jue, last year’s Tony winner in the Best Featured Actor in a Play category (for “Yellow Face”), will co-star in Shayan Lotfi’s “What Became of Us,” which will be presented by George Street Playhouse at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center from March 17 to April 5. Jue and Christine Toy Johnson will play two siblings from an immigrant family; one was born in the “old country,” one in the new one.

According to a press release: “From childhood dreams to adult struggles, their evolving relationship navigates closeness, distance, and ambition, leading to moments of reckoning and return. Told through memory and choice, the story traces how shared history and diverging experiences shape who they become and how they find their way back to one another.”

• Bergen County Players will present “The Cake” at Little Firehouse Theatre in Oradell, from March 14 to April 11. Written by Bekah Brunstetter, the 2017 play is about a conservative North Carolina baker who refuses to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding; it was inspired by real life Colorado controversy that made its way all the way to The Supreme Court.

• The Liberty Hall Academic Center at Kean University in Union will offer “Plays by People” — featuring staged readings of the short plays “Deadly Vapors,” by Chris Saglimbene, and “Space Odyssey,” by Amy Myers — March 14 at 3 p.m. There will be no admission charge.

The show will be presented by Premiere Stages in partnership with the Matheny Arts Access program, which is designed to enable those with disabilities “to create art without boundaries.”

• The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank will present “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” March 17-18 at 7:30 p.m. This jukebox musical, which ran on Broadway from 2019 to 2022 and was nominated for 12 Tonys, tells the life story of Tina Turner, from her youth in Nutbush, Tennessee, to her rise to fame; her relationship with her abusive husband and musical partner Ike Turner; her hard times after leaving him; and her eventual resurrection as a hit-making rock superstar.

FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT

• Due to the inclement weather New Jersey experienced in February, the closing date of Circus Vazquez at The Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus has been moved from March 9 to March 22. The big-top show includes traditional circus attractions such as clowns, acrobats, trapeze artists and animal stunts.

Elton John in “Tommy.”

FILM

• A 50th anniversary edition of The Who’s 1975 Ken Russell-directed movie version of their rock opera “Tommy” — featuring the band as well as Tina Turner, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Ann-Margret and others in various roles — will be shown at the AMC Garden State 16 IMAX in Paramus as well as other IMAX theaters, nationally, March 17-18. Click HERE for locations and times.

• “Dirty Dancing in Concert” — taking place at The State Theatre in New Brunswick, March 18 at 7:30 p.m. — will feature a screening of a digitally remastered version of the 1987 film, with singers and a live band performing all of its songs, including the Oscar- and Grammy-winning “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” and “Hungry Eyes.”

• The Williams Center in Rutherford will offer a great opportunity to watch the late Robert Duvall — who died last month at the age of 95 — in one of his most memorable roles, as psychopathic surfing enthusiast Lt. Col. William “Bill” Kilgore, in “Apocalypse Now” (1979), March 12 at 7 p.m., and March 14-15 at 5 and 7:45 p.m.

REVIEWS

“My Fair Lady,” presented by American Theater Group at The Hamilton Stage at The Union County Performing Arts Center, Rahway (Through March 15)

“A Doll’s House” at Two River Theater, Red Bank. (Through March 15)

“Samantha Inside Out” at New Jersey Repertory Company, Long Branch. (Through March 15)

“Richard III,” presented by The Curtain at Nimbus Arts Center, Jersey City. (Through March 29)

“Allan Rohan Crite: Neighborhood” at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. (Through July 31)

“Salvador Jiménez-Flores: Raíces & Resistencias” at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton. (Through Aug. 1, 2027)

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