Top 10 New Jersey arts and entertainment stories of 2017
Chris Jordan2017 was a year of beauty and sadness for the New Jersey arts and entertainment scene.
Certainly, “Springsteen on Broadway,” in which Freehold-native Bruce Springsteen tells the story of his life, is a thing of beauty. It conveys the hopes, dreams and ambitions of a hardscrabble outsider looking for the big time and a personal connection in a way that often leaves audience members in tears.
Speaking of tears, the Jersey music world lost one of its finest talents and most engaging personalities in 2017. Pat DiNizio, the lead singer of the Smithereens, passed away on Dec. 12 at the age of 62.
“The music in New Jersey is a little quieter today with the passing of Smithereens’ frontman Pat DiNizio, who wrote memorable riffs and proudly called Scotch Plains home,” said New Jersey Gov.-elect Phil Murphy.
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The band’s hits included “Blood and Roses,” “Drown in My Own Tears” and “Only a Memory” and “Beauty and Sadness.”
Theater news, festival happenings, a museum opening, the emergence of a new Jersey singing star, a Beatle having dinner in Asbury Park, Bon Jovi finally getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and more make our list of the Top 10 New Jersey arts and entertainment stories of 2017.
1. Bruce Springsteen on Broadway
“Springsteen on Broadway,” which opened at the Walter Kerr Theatre in early October, is a Jersey story at its heart. A young Bruce Springsteen grows up in the shadow of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Freehold, goes to Asbury Park, where he fits in with the other ne’er-do-wells of early ‘70s Asbury Park, and from there he becomes a superstar.
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So after years of singing songs about getting out of Freehold, what does he do?
“I moved 10 miles away!” says Springsteen in the play.
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The music play is revelatory, universally lauded for its excellence, and it’s made the Boss a Broadway star. It was rehearsed at Monmouth University, which was announced this year to be the home of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music.
The Oct. 12 opening was full of stars, including Steven Spielberg and wife Kate Capshaw; Tom Hanks; Tina Fey and her husband Jeff Richmond; Jon Stewart and wife Tracey; Ralph Lauren; Andrew Lloyd Webber; the E Street Band and more.
Greetings from Asbury Park has now become Greetings from Broadway.
2. A Smithereen exits
It seemed like there wasn’t a single Jersey music fan who didn’t have a story about a positive encounter with Pat DiNizio, the lead singer of the Smithereens. Those stories were shared after news broke of DiNizio’s death on Tuesday, Dec. 12.
DiNizio, who sang the hits “Blood and Roses,” “Drown in My Own Tears” and “Only a Memory,” “A Girl Like You” and more, was 62.
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Perhaps more than Springsteen or anyone else, DiNizio and the Smithereens captured the spirit of the Jersey experience in their songs and shows.
“The Smithereens are, in essence, a mirror for our audience,” said DiNizio to Gannett NJ. “We’re four working-class guys from New Jersey from the neighborhood that looks, and acts and speaks and resembles, our audience. So whenever they come to a Smithereens show, they’re really looking at themselves.”
Now, it’s only a memory.
3. Bon Jovi gets the Rock Hall nod
It was one of the great mysteries of the music world. Why wasn’t Bon Jovi in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After all, they had sold more than 130 million records and were still rocking arenas and stadiums around the world after 30 years together. The guys had been eligible since 2008, but every year, like Susan Lucci and the Emmys, they were passed over.
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Finally, the Rock Hall instituted fan voting into the process, and, lo and behold, Bon Jovi received more than 1 million votes. It showed that they were the biggest band not in the hall.
On Wednesday, Dec. 13, the call came: they were in. Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, Tico Torres and Richie Sambora, who exited the band in 2013, and original bassist Alec John Such, who departed in 1994, will receive recognition by the Rock Hall on April 14 in Cleveland. Sambora and Such will be asked to play with the current lineup at the ceremony.
4. A Beatle has dinner at Jimmy’s
It’s not every day a Beatle has dinner in a New Jersey restaurant, but it happened at Jimmy’s Italian Restaurant in Asbury Park in 2017. Paul McCartney, wife Nancy Shevell, and family members dined at the landmark Asbury Avenue spot during Labor Day weekend.
McCartney, famously vegetarian, had stuffed artichokes, broccoli rabe, eggplant parmesan and a salad.
“He said tell the chef that everything was excellent,” said waitress Bernadette Kozlowski.
The Shevells have Asbury Park roots. Nancy Shevell’s grandparents owned the Walters Department Store on Cookman Avenue for decades.
5. 'Jersey Shore' returns
They came, they fist pumped (a little), and they ate chicken parm sandwiches at the Barnegat Burger King. A reunion of most of the cast of “Jersey Shore” took place last summer in Point Pleasant Beach on E!’s “Reunion Road Trip: Return to the Jersey Shore.”
Things didn’t work out regarding a return to Seaside Heights, where the series was originally based.
“I can see why we’re not wanted back,” said Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi on the show. “We were a hot mess.”
The “Jersey Shore” cast also filmed the Burger King commercial in July.
The takeaway? People want more. Most of the cast of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” will reunite for the new series called “Jersey Shore Family Vacation,” set to air in 2018 on MTV. Details, including where the “family vacation” will take place, are scarce.
We do know Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola, who is from Hazlet, is sitting out. SallyAnn Salsano, the creator and executive producer of “Jersey Shore,” is at the helm of the new show.
6. Two theaters down in New Brunswick
Two storied New Brunswick theaters fell to the wrecking ball in 2017.
One was the George Street Playhouse, which was housed in the former YMCA building on Livingston Avenue for 32 years. Stars like Anne Meara, Eli Wallach, Chita Rivera, Suzzanne Douglas, Jack Klugman and Idina Menzel graced the stage there.
Next door, the Crossroads Theatre, built in 1987, was also demolished. It presented works by luminaries such as as August Wilson, Ntozake Shange, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and Rita Dove. “It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues” played at Crossroads before hitting Broadway, and the theater a won the 1999 Regional Theatre Tony Award.
A $175 million commercial and residential high-rise being built on the spot will include a New Brunswick Performing Arts Center that will house the theaters. It’s scheduled to open in 2019.
Until then, George Street is staging shows at the site of the former state Agriculture Museum off of Route 1 in New Brunswick. Crossroads has shows at the Middlesex County College Performing Arts Center in Edison, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, and at Rutgers University.
7. Boss visits Asbury Park festival — twice
What a weekend in April.
Concerts by Robert Randolph and the Matt O’Ree Band, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes packed the Stone Pony, and Mike and the Mechanics filmed an episode of public TV’s “Front and Center” at the House of Independents as part of the Asbury Park Music and Film Festival in Asbury Park.
Yet, the Bruce Springsteen surprise appearances at the fest’s premiere of a new documentary on the former Upstage Club of Asbury Park, “Just Before the Dawn: Riot. Redemption. Rock ‘n’ Roll.,” by filmmaker Tom Jones, at the Paramount Theatre, and the next night at the theater with Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, made international headlines. It also helped raise more than $100,000 for the educational programs of the Asbury Park Music Foundation.
8. A Grammy Museum in Newark
And the Grammy goes to — New Jersey. The Grammy Museum Experience Prudential Center opened in October in Newark. Inside, there are items worn by Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez, Kanye West, Amy Winehouse and more. Interactive elements including a virtual drum lesson on how to play “Born in the U.S.A.” from Max Weinberg, and studio time with Wycleff Jean of the Fugees.
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It all made New Jersey native Bob Santelli, the Grammy Museum founding executive director, proud.
“This is a place that for a long, long time will continue to celebrate not just what happened in the past but give birth to what’s going to happen in the future,” Santelli said.
9. SZA gets 6 Grammy noms
Jersey newcomer SZA, aka Solona Rowe of Maplewood, made a big splash at the Grammy Award nominations this year with five connected to her hit debut R&B album, “Ctrl.” Her year was capped her year with an appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” in December.
“It’s too overwhelming. I didn’t even know what to say,” said SZA to the Associated Press. “It almost felt like, ‘Be quiet because you don’t even know how this is happening to you. So you need to just thank the Lord and move forward.’ "
10. Concerts filmed in Asbury Park
Hollywood still loves Jersey — it’s been that way for more than a decade with lots of TV shows filmed in the state.
A new wrinkle in 2017 was the filming of concerts for broadcast on TV in Asbury Park. It seemed like a TV crew was filming a band in a city venue every month. MTV shot an episode of “Unplugged” with Bleachers, Lorde and Carly Rae Jepsen at the Stone Pony in March; PBS’s “Front & Center” filmed Mike and the Mechanics at the House of Independents during April’s Asbury Park Music and Film Festival in April; the PBS TV series “Landmarks Live in Concert,” which films concerts at notable landmarks around the world, shot Prophets of Rage at the Stone Pony in September; and TJ Lubinsky returned to the city to film “The Next Doo Wop Star” for PBS’ “My Music” series at the Paramount over two cold nights in December.
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“We’re coming to Asbury Park because we want to tell the story of Asbury Park and how far it’s come,” said “Landmarks Live” executive producer Daniel Catullo, a Jersey native. “It the past, the place was shady but it’s been amazing what’s gone on there. Asbury Park is a place you wouldn’t have gone to 25 years ago but it’s amazing how far it’s come.”
Chris Jordan: cjordan@app.com. Twitter: @chrisfhjordan