Bound Brook Goes to Warp for a Three-Part Star Trek Celebration

Star Trek turned 60 this week, and Brook Arts Center is spending September celebrating the franchise in three different languages. Over 16 days, the historic Bound Brook theater will move from a big-screen presentation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture to a live orchestral concert and then into the New Jersey premiere of KHAN!!! The Musical. It is less a single event than a compact demonstration of how a six-decade-old story keeps finding new forms. That is what makes the run more interesting than a standard anniversary program. Brook is putting film history, fan history, symphonic music and affectionate parody on the same calendar. The material changes hands, but the voyage continues. Sept. 12: The Motion Picture back on the big screen The run begins Saturday, Sept. 12, with a special screening of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Brook’s event art identifies the presentation as the Director’s Cut, with the film beginning at 3 p.m. and the fan event opening at 1 p.m. Special guest Steven Lance, who appeared in the 1979 film as a Rhaandarite crewman, will join the afternoon alongside representatives from the Star Trek Challenger and Avenger chapters and participate in a talk-back. Lance is an especially fitting anniversary guest because his Trek history predates his film appearance. He hosted major Star Trek conventions in the 1970s before joining the movie, putting him on both sides of the fan-performer relationship that helped sustain the franchise between the original television run and its move to theaters. The afternoon is therefore not just repertory cinema; it is also a small piece of fan history sitting in the room with the audience. Sept. 13: The music takes over The following afternoon, the images give way to the score. Star Trek: A Symphonic Voyage begins at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13, with the Brook Orchestra conducted by Thomas Vacca. The program is being presented as a musical trip across the Star Trek universe, from the original series through the larger cinematic themes that followed it. Star Trek’s fanfares and film scores have always done part of the franchise’s world-building before a ship crosses the screen; here, the music gets to become the destination. Sept. 18–27: Khan starts singing Five days later, Brook makes the sharpest turn. The Brook Arts Center Community Players open the New Jersey premiere of KHAN!!! The Musical, Brent Black and Alina Roth’s parody of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The production runs for eight performances from Sept. 18 through Sept. 27, with Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. The show takes one of the franchise’s most revered films and gives it the full musical-comedy treatment: revenge, space battles, dancing Vulcans, theatrical excess and mutant space chickens. Data presents a musicalized version of the Khan story and takes enough liberties with both history and Broadway conventions to make the distortion part of the joke. It is a useful final leg of Brook’s anniversary sequence. On Saturday, Trek is treated as film history. On Sunday, it becomes concert music. The next weekend, one of its most sacred texts is sturdy enough to survive being lovingly made ridiculous. And then Khan comes back — with Kirk New Jersey’s Star Trek calendar does not end when Brook’s musical closes. On Friday, Jan. 29, 2027, State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick will screen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and then bring William Shatner to the stage for stories from his career and audience questions. The event begins at 7:30 p.m.; State Theatre currently lists general sales for Sept. 18 at 10 a.m., with a donor presale beginning Sept. 16. VIP add-ons include a post-show professional photo with Shatner, with a premium tier adding a signed poster. That timing gives the New Jersey run a wonderfully neat coda. In September, Bound Brook gets the affectionate musical parody of Khan. Four months later, New Brunswick gets the original film with Captain Kirk himself sitting down after the credits. One event takes the material apart for comedy. The other puts the source back on the screen and lets one of the people who made it tell the stories around it. The Trek calendar

When | What
Sept. 12 | Star Trek: The Motion Picture — Brook Arts Center; event 1 p.m.; screening 3 p.m.
Sept. 13 | Star Trek: A Symphonic Voyage — Brook Orchestra / Thomas Vacca, 3 p.m.
Sept. 18–27 | KHAN!!! The Musical — Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun. 2 p.m.
Jan. 29, 2027 | William Shatner with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan — State Theatre New Jersey, 7:30 p.m.

Brook Arts Center is at 10 Hamilton Street in Bound Brook. The September run arrives immediately after the Sept. 8 anniversary of the original television premiere and gives fans several ways to mark the milestone without pretending there is only one correct way to be a fan. The best part of an anniversary like this is not simply looking backward. It is seeing which parts of the culture remain alive enough to be rearranged. A movie can become a concert. A tragedy can become a musical joke. A performance from 1982 can still fill a theater in 2027 because the actor who lived through it has another story to tell. Sixty years into Star Trek, New Jersey is getting a useful reminder that longevity is not the same thing as sitting still. Event Details

What | Three-part Star Trek 60th celebration at Brook Arts Center (plus January Shatner coda at STNJ)
When | Sept. 12–27, 2026 (Brook); Jan. 29, 2027 (State Theatre New Jersey)
Where | Brook Arts Center, 10 Hamilton Street, Bound Brook
Also | See calendar for individual showtimes; Shatner tickets on sale details via State Theatre New Jersey

SOURCE NOTES • Brook Arts Center — official site
• State Theatre New Jersey — William Shatner Live on Stage with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan