Weekend Picks: ‘Tis the Week Before Christmas
December 20, 2007
Still time this weekend to catch the holiday classics—and some holiday unusuals.
Classics? The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carol, Handel’s Messiah.
You can catch Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker at two top venues this weekend. The Paper Mill Playhouse (www.papermill.org) in Millburn hosts a New Jersey Ballet (www.njballet.org) production, shows Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m., Sunday 1 and 6 p.m. $19-$54.
And at the State Theater (www.statetheatrenj.org) in New Brunswick, it’s the American Repertory Ballet’s (www.arballet.org) production. Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. $25-$45.
A Christmas Carol is at two big Enn-Jay venues too. McCarter Theater (www.mccarter.org) in Princeton has shows 7:30 p.m. Friday, and 1 and 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, $15-$55. Charles Dickens’ holiday tale is also being staged by Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey (www.shakespearenj.org) at Drew University in Madison. Weekend matinees 2 p.m., evening shows at 8 Friday through Sunday. $28 to $52.
You can hear the glory of Handel’s Messiah Sunday at NJPAC (www.njpac.org) in Newark, with George Marriner Maull and The Discovery Orchestra. Show is at 3 p.m., $18-$78.
Last minute shopping is a holiday classic too. Specially if it’s hip shopping. Check out Red Bank Saturday (www.redbankrivercenter.org), when downtown’s sidewalks will be dressed in holiday style—and making holiday music: carolers, brass bands, rock, folk, jazz and blues. Plus all those cool stores (and you can sneak a peek at the cold Shore in winter).
The Presbyterian Church of Morristown Chapel on The Green offers a Celtic Christmas. It’s an ecumenical service with music from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, Brittany, the Isle of Man, and Galicia, performed on folk instruments. Sunday, 4 p.m., free, at 57 Park Place.
If you are looking for really unusual, join a holiday celebration from the days—centuries, really—before Christmas. Poet, musician and artist, D.J. Haslett will read “winter tales” to mark the winter solstice. Hourly, 1–4 p.m. at the ,Grounds for Sculpture (www.groundsforsculpture.org) in Hamilton, free with admission ($6–$10).
We close with glad tidings from a bright reader who sent us another house with show-stopping Christmas lights. It’s in Manalapan, near the intersection of Devon Drive South and Tennent Road. Somebody took pictures, www.flickr.com/photos/estevesm/2121926304. /The owners are accepting donations to fight childhood diabetes. So go give. It’s the Christmas thing to do.
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