Compiled by Kevin Coughlin
Musicals. Maple Sugar. Meaty documentaries.
Greater Morristown offers ample tasty treats this weekend, culminating in solemn remembrances of Martin Luther King, whose messages of liberty, equality and tolerance remain as painfully relevant in 2015 as they were on the day he died.
Sen. Cory Booker is scheduled to speak at Monday’s Interfaith Breakfast in Morristown; details are below.
For more activities,visit our handy calendar.
THURSDAY, JAN. 15, 2015:
Music At Noon features The City Winds Trio, at the Morristown United Methodist Church. Crispian Fordham, flute; Meredyth Coleman, oboe; and Jack Bender, piano, will perform music by Krommer, Bach and Dring in a 30-minute concert in the church sanctuary, at 50 Park Place (on the Green). Suggested donation: $7 for adults, $6 for seniors, students, free. Free childcare also is available during the concert, and a light lunch is available for purchase before and after the show. Call 973-538-2132 for more.
Discover the history of ragtime, played on the Guinness Collection of mechanical instruments at the Morris Museum. Raging Ragtime! is a 90-minute program that starts at 6:30 pm. At 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morris Township. Admission: $7 for members and $9 for non-members Call (973) 971-3700 for more.
Grow It Green Morristown and the Foodshed Alliance begin their third annual Food for Thought film series with a screening of Fed Up, a documentary about childhood obesity. At the Hyatt Morristown; doors open at 6:45 pm, the movie rolls at 7 pm. Dietician Marissa Sweeney of Be Well Morristown is guest speaker. Tickets are available online for $7.14, including a processing fee. A four-film package costs $21.49.
The Tony-winning musical comedy Nice Work If You Can Get It comes to the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown at 8 pm. Tickets: $39-$79. At 100 South St., Morristown. Call 973-539-8008 for more.
FRIDAY, JAN. 16:
The Minstrel in Morris Township has two dynamic performers with great senses of humor: Julie Gold and George Wurzbach, starting at 8 pm. Gold wrote the Grammy-winning song From a Distance, recorded by Bette Midler and many others. She also wrote Roscoe, The Bed-Bug Sniffing Dog. Wurzbach is best known for his comedic gems with the group Modern Man. Admission: Adults $9; children 12 and under, free. At the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, 21 Normandy Heights Road. Here are videos, to give you an idea.
Video: Roscoe, The Bedbug-Sniffing Dog
Video: Like a River
Manhattan Comedy Night returns to the Mayo Performing Arts Center at 8 pm. Mature themes, language. Adults only. Tickets: $25. At 100 South St., Morristown. Call 973-539-8008 for more.
SATURDAY, JAN. 17:
If you love LEGOs, the Morris Museum is the place to be at 1:30 pm. Hear Mike Doyle, acclaimed LEGO artist and author of Beautiful LEGO 2. The book will be for sale, and Doyle will sign copies after his talk. It’s part of the Museum’s Brick by Brick exhibit, which runs through March 15. The talk is free with Museum admission, which is $10 for adults and $7 for children, students and senior citizens; free for members. At 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morris Township. Call (973) 971-3700 for more.
Feeling sappy? Check out an hour-long maple sugaring demonstration at 2 pm at the Great Swamp Outdoor Education Center in Chatham Township. Admission is $3 per person. At 247 Southern Boulevard. Also offered on Sunday at 2 pm.
Soft rock rolls into the Mayo Performing Arts Center at 7:30 pm with Rockin’ the ’70s, featuring the Atlanta Rhythm Section (So Into You, Imaginary Lover), Orleans (Still the One, Dance with Me), Al Stewart (Time Passages, Year of the Cat) and Firefall (You Are the Woman, Just Remember I Love You). Tickets: $39-$79. At 100 South St., Morristown. Call 973-539-8008 for more. (Note: The start time was moved up by 30 minutes.)
SUNDAY, JAN. 18:
New York Times best-selling author Andrea Wulf (Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation) is guest speaker at 1 pm at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morris Township. Sponsored by The Friends of The Frelinghuysen Arboretum and Morris County Park Commission. Admission: $40 members, $45 non-members. At 353 East Hanover Ave. Register online or call 973-326-7603.
Want to learn about Maple Sugaring? See a demo at 2 pm at the Great Swamp Outdoor Education Center in Chatham Township. See Saturday entry for details.
Superstar violinist Sarah Chang plays selections from West Side Story, and other favorites, with the New Jersey Symphony at the Mayo Performing Arts Center, at 3 pm. Tickets: $20 to $90. At 100 South St., Morristown. Call 973-539-8008 for more.
MONDAY, JAN. 19, MLK DAY:
Sen. Cory Booker is scheduled to speak at Morristown’s 30th annual Interfaith Breakfast to honor the late Rev. Martin Luther King. The event starts at 8 am at the Hyatt Morristown. Tickets are $25. This year’s remembrances will mark the 50th anniversary of bloody Sunday and the Voting Rights Act, a period central to the film Selma. This also is Felicia Jamison’s 45th straight year chairing Morristown’s Martin Luther King Observance Committee.
At noon, Calvary Baptist Church will honor Martin Luther King with its 45th Service of Celebration, featuring as guest speaker the Rev. Lawrence E. Akers, senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Brooklyn. Calvary is at 10 Martin Luther King Ave. in Morristown; all are welcome.
To commemorate Martin Luther King Day, the Morris Museum will show the film Freedom Riders at 2:30 pm. It’s the story of civil rights activists called Freedom Riders who in 1961 challenged segregation in the American South. Free with Museum admission: $10 for adults, $7 for children, students and senior citizens; free for Museum members. At 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morris Township.
