Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Darlene Love Returns to Kean Stage

The incomparable Darlene Love returns to Kean Stage at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 14 to perform Love for the Holidays, a Christmas show like no other. The event will take place at Wilkins Theatre, 1000 Morris Ave., Union, N.J. on Kean University's main campus.

"I'm thrilled to be performing my annual holiday show at Kean Stage in celebration of my 50-plus years in showbiz and to bring some love and joy to the folks in Union, N.J. by singing my #1 classic, Christmas, (Baby Please Come Home)," said Love.

If you want to hear Love perform that song, which she first recorded on the 1963 album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, this is the place to be. Although she sang the holiday favorite every December for nearly 30 years with Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra on Late Night with David Letterman, Love vowed never to perform it on another late night TV talk show. The move was out of respect for Letterman, whose support helped relaunch her career in the mid-1980s.

Over the years, Love's name has become synonymous with several other holiday songs, including A Marshmallow World and All Alone on Christmas, which was written by Steve Van Zandt for the 1992 movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

But Love for the Holidays will not be exclusively Christmas music. Expect to hear some of her classic hits, including Wait 'Til My Bobby Gets Home, He's a Rebel, A Fine Fine Boy and (Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry.

Darlene Love started out as a member of The Blossoms and also sang background vocals for many of the biggest artists of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Righteous Brothers, Dionne Warwick, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and The Beach Boys. She has been featured in major motion pictures, including the Lethal Weapon series, and appeared on Broadway in Hairspray and Grease. Love even starred as herself in Leader of the Pack, credited as Broadway's first 'jukebox musical.'

In 2011, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and in 2014 was the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary, Twenty Feet from Stardom. Love continues to captivate audiences worldwide with her warm, gracious stage presence and superb performances.

"Darlene Love's thunderbolt voice is as embedded in the history of rock and roll as Eric Clapton's guitar or Bob Dylan's lyrics," raved the New York Times.

Tickets are $40-$70 and can be purchased at the Kean Stage Box Office in Wilkins Theatre, by phone at 908-737-7469 or online at www.keanstage.com. Save 25% with code HOLIDAY19.

Founded in 1855, Kean University is one of the largest metropolitan institutions of higher education in the region, with a richly diverse student, faculty and staff population. Kean continues to play a key role in the training of teachers and is a hub of educational, technological and cultural enrichment serving more than 16,000 students. The University's six undergraduate colleges offer more than 50 undergraduate degrees over a full range of academic subjects. The Nathan Weiss Graduate College offers six doctoral degree programs and more than 80 options for graduate study leading to master's degrees, professional diplomas or certifications. With campuses in Union, Toms River, Jefferson and Manahawkin, New Jersey, and Wenzhou, China, Kean University furthers its mission by providing an affordable and accessible world-class education. Visit www.kean.edu.

Kean Stage at Kean University educates, entertains and challenges audiences by presenting high-quality programs that reflect the diversity of the region and of the arts. These cultural offerings complement the intellectual life of the classroom for our students, increase opportunities for community engagement, and provide affordable access to the arts for New Jersey residents. Audiences of all ages are invited to enjoy a wide range of professional theatre, Broadway tours, dance performances, concerts, international films and family-friendly shows. In addition, Kean Stage encourages University students to attend events, and provides several opportunities to explore the performing arts through master classes, workshops, lectures, and employment opportunities as ushers, backstage technicians and box office staff. Visit www.keanstage.com.

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