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San Diego's Top Weekend Arts Events: From Ritmos Latinos To Broadway!

A promotional photo from San Diego Ballet's Ritmos Latinos 2019.
San Diego Ballet
A promotional photo from San Diego Ballet's Ritmos Latinos 2019.
San Diego's Top Weekend Arts Events: From Ritmos Latinos To Broadway!
GUEST: Nina Garin, editor/producer, KPBS/Arts Calendar Subscribe to the Midday Edition podcast on iTunes, Google Play or your favorite podcatcher.

Kaye PBS is supported by the law firm of Mintz working with startups and growing companies. Mintz legal services can help clients raise capital secure space and protect intellectual property to achieve strategic goals. More at MedStar calm. Mintz built on excellence driven by change. Valentine's Day is over but not romance. On this weekend preview we'll talk about the romance and artistry of a dance program from the San Diego ballet. Plus a new season of Broadway San Diego PBS arts editor Nina Garen is here with me. And hi Nina. Hello. Now San Diego ballet brings back its reach most Latinos program remind us what that is. This is a ballet show that uses a variety of Latin music so people will see three short pieces that are choreographed by how we had Belasco. And they highlight different styles of Latin music you get from happy mariachi to a more seductive tango. Now you recently spoke with San Diego Ballet artistic director Harvey Velasco about why Latin music can be romantic. And here's here's a bit of what he had to say. Well I think Latin music allows the listener whether they're listening to it art or feeling it and dancing to it. It allows them to sort of release and have fun. You can lose yourself in something romantically and also have fun with it. So what will people see on the program this year. Any romance. There's a lot but not the way you expect. There's a ton got that which is a tango ballet makes. And have you ever Lascaux says it's more aggressive and sexy. You also have a song called Gibbon Ethan Maude which is a mix of ballet with ballet for nautical. This is a traditional mariachi song. A lot of people know it. It's the kind of love that you have for like your significant other or also for your mother or your child. You know kind of like an all encompassing love song. And then we have bordellos where those which is a jazz piece by local musician and composer Gilbert Castellanos. Now something unique about this show is that there's live jazz music during the performance. Yes. Gilbert will be performing live with the band on stage while the dancers perform. And it's unusual because jazz musicians they like to improvise and it's never the same one day to the next. And ballet is so structured so these dancers are able to play around with that improvisation and bring it to the show. Reed most Latinos happens tonight through Sunday at the Lyceum Theater. Now earlier this week Broadway San Diego announced its 2019 2020 season and it's filled with shows that are coming to San Diego for the first time. NINA Yes it's actually a super exciting season and what people are going to be really excited about is that Dear Evan Hansen is coming that musical beat come from a way for Best Musical a couple of years ago. It's the first time it'll be in San Diego. Tickets for this I think are going to be just as hard to get as the Hamilton tickets were. And for those who haven't heard of it it's about a high school kid who really wants to belong. And he kind of gets there by telling a few lies and then the world sort of breaks down around him. And that show opens on New Year's Eve. Let's listen to a song from Dear Evan Hansen. THIS IS BEN PLATT singing waving through a window from the 2017 Tony Awards to. Slam on the brake. Before I even turn the key. Before I make a mistake before I leave with the words give them no reason no slipping no use. So I got nothing to show. No I got nothing to say. Out. Step. Aside if you. Get. Stan out step out of this because you. Always will. That's from Dear Evan Hansen and opens at Broadway San Diego on New Year's Eve. LET ME SAY BEN PLATT is not going to be in our version but I'm sure they'll get a really wonderful lead person for that excellent singer. We no doubt now you mentioned that Dear Evan Hansen beat come from a way for a Tony Award but come from a way is also coming to San Diego this season. Yes and come from a way didn't get its own of Tonys and everything. That's the show that originated at the La Hoya Playhouse and is still going strong on Broadway. That's actually where I saw it. Now it's touring and it's going to be in San Diego in this new form which is great. This one's about the airline passengers who are stuck in Newfoundland during the 9/11 attacks. We can't play music from Dear Evan Hansen without something from come from awake. This is welcome to The Rock. The wildest weather that you've ever. One is toxic but it's never nice above. This place. Needs. Welcome to. Come from a way we'll be here June 2020. There are two other buzzed about shows on this lineup both inspired by movies. Yes we have Disney's Frozen which is still really big on Broadway. It's going to be here March through April of 2020 and then there's Mean Girls which is a musical by Tina Fey and it's directed by San Diego's Casey Nicola. This is gonna be really big with teens. I mean it's opening in June 2020. So you brought music from Mean Girls. This is Meet the plastics. I once saw her put a D and the word orange My name is Kerry. My hair is shiny my teeth are perfect my skirt is tiny it barely. That's. Scary. Good. Yeah. We don't have time to discuss all the musicals but what else is Kobe. Anastasia is coming in October. Jesus Christ Superstar and Blue Man Group will be here in November. Rent is coming back may 2020 and then my fair lady in July 2020 let's look forward to. I have been speaking with K PBS Arts Editor Nina Garrett for many more weekend events you can check out Kate PBS dot org slash arts. Nina thank you. Thanks have a good weekend. Just after midnight on New Year's Eve 2003 a shooting shook the Lincoln Park neighborhood in San Diego. Everybody felt it like you have to. You have two innocent women that. Were just coming from church you know that had nothing to do with anything. Two women were caught in gang crossfire outside Dr J's liquor. It's kind of like a three year old type of memory you know for me. I think there was a dragon there. It was kind of like a story from a fairy tale. It's still being felt from the families of the victims to the man convicted. It's like you're watching somebody get beat with a belt and you're not getting hit but you feel in the licks and you're doing all the reaction. If you walk the streets in the area today people still talk about the shooting and the lasting impacts it had. It's. A. Ticking even ticking time bomb it's exploding at this point. Tune in for Dr. James R. six part series starting February 20th. Find it on the San Diego Stories podcast at KP B.S. dot org slash podcasts.

Valentine’s Day is over– but not romance. This weekend there's a dance program from San Diego Ballet that explores the romance and artistry of Latin music, plus Broadway San Diego announced its plans for the 2019/2010 season and there's a lot to look forward to.

Ritmos Latinos

Dance, Music

San Diego Ballet brings back its annual celebration of Latin music featuring a mix of ballet, tango, ballet folklorico and more.

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Ritmos Latinos will include the rousing mariachi classic, "Que Bonito Amor," a passionate "Tangata" tango dance, plus a piece called "Por Los Muertos," written and performed live by jazz musician and composer Gilbert Castellanos.

"Por Los Muertos" is a piece that honors Southern California jazz icons like Mundell Lowe, Daniel Jackson and Snooky Young, and features choreography that's more improvisational than the usual structure of ballet.

Details: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown. $35 to $50; find tickets to Ritmos Latinos.

Beloved local band Louis XIV reunites in 2019.
Atlantic Recording Corp.
Beloved local band Louis XIV reunites in 2019.

Louis XIV

Music

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The Casbah continues its 30th anniversary celebration with San Diego's own glam-rock band Louis XIV.

The band known for its hits "Finding Out True Love is Blind" and "It's the Girl That Makes Him Sad," will reunite for two shows this weekend.

Louis XIV began as a roots-inspired band called Convoy, but by 2003 vocalists/guitarists Jason Hill and Brian Karscig along with drummer Mark Maigaard connected with bassist Jimmy Armbrust and created Louis XIV: a glam band that channeled vintage Rolling Stones.

On Friday, Louis XIV performs with Nicky Venus and Ignant Benches. On Saturday, The Slashes and Demasiado are on the bill.

Details: 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Midtown. $25; find tickets to Louis XIV.

"Come From Away," which had its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in May 2015, received seven Tony Award nominations including one for artistic director Christopher Ashley.
Matthew Murphy
"Come From Away," which had its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in May 2015, received seven Tony Award nominations including one for artistic director Christopher Ashley.

Broadway San Diego

Theater

Start saving now for Broadway San Diego's upcoming 2019/2020 season, which includes many shows coming to town for the first town.

On the lineup is "Dear Evan Hansen," the Tony-winning musical about a teen who desperately wants to be accepted. It runs Dec. 31, 2019 through Jan. 12, 2020.

Tina Fey's "Mean Girls," based on her 2004 movie is still a big seller on Broadway. The touring production will be at the Civic Theatre June 9 to 14, 2020.

And La Jolla Playhouse's "Come From Away," which tells the story of airline passengers stuck in Newfoundland during the 9/11 attacks returns to San Diego as a touring show June 23 to 28.

Other shows on the lineup include "Anastasia," Oct. 1 to 6; "Disney's Frozen," March 26 to April 12, 2020; "My Fair Lady," July 7 to 12, 2020; "Jesus Christ Superstar," Nov. 12 to 17; "Rent," May 8 to 10, 2020; and "Blue Man Group," Nov. 8 to 10.

Details: Subscriber tickets are on sale now. Individual tickets will be released later this year. find details at Broadway San Diego.