San Diego's Top Weekend Arts Events: Iliza, 'Dolly' And Beethoven

This is KPBS midday edition. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. The musical that made the late great Carol Channing a household name comes to San Diego with another great Broadway veteran playing Dolly Levi. Plus a millennial comic and an ambitious chamber music group. That's what's in store for the Arts in San Diego this weekend. Here to give us details is K PBS Arts Editor Nina Garin. Hi Nina. Hello. The classic musical Hello Dolly is in town this weekend can you remind us what it's about. Yes it's about the widowed meddling matchmaker Dolly Levi. It happens at the turn of the 20th century. She's supposed to set up the niece of a wealthy merchant in New York but instead she devises a complicated scheme to get the merchant Horace to fall in love with her. When this musical was first staged back in 1964 it was a really big deal wasn't it. It was. I read somewhere that it was the Hamilton of its time. It sold out from day one and it stayed sold out for many years. The cast album was number one for seven weeks and this was during the height of the 60s rock era. Now this musical is also known as a vehicle for some of Broadway's greatest stars. Yeah. Dolly Levi is for a certain type of Broadway thing or various dabbling. She was most famously played by Carol Channing who died earlier this week. She opened it on Broadway and she played it again in the 70s and the 90s. Of course Barbra Streisand played her in the film and recently in the revival Bette Midler played Dolly and that. And recently in the revival Bette Midler played Dolly but Bette Midler is not in the touring version that we're seeing in San Diego. No but they did get a great name Betty Buckley. She's taking over the role. People know her as the original grizzled fellow from cats and she was also in Sunset Boulevard Gypsy and she's still seen all over TV and movies. Let's listen to the title song from the musical. This is Hello Dolly. By the late great Carol Channing. Can you. Louie it's so nice. To be back home where. Y'all. Lookin so. Hello Dolly runs through Sunday at the San Diego Civic Theatre from a meddling matchmaker to a millennial comedian Eliza Celeste singer at the Billboard theatre tonight. Who is she. People know her because she was the first female and the youngest person to win the NBC comedy reality show last comic standing. And since then she's put out for Netflix special. The latest is elder millennial. And that's the name of her tour. What does that mean. Elder millennial says she was born in 1983 so she kind of straddles the line between Gen X and millennials. So she can make jokes about landlines and also stalking your ex on Instagram. What's her comedy like. So it's kind of like storytelling mixed with nostalgia and a dose of feminism. She is popular though because she does tell a lot of traditional jokes like relationships and men do this woman do this. But she does it with her own take. So Eliza Sledge singer performs tonight at Balboa Theater. Finally you wanted to tell us about the Ariel quartet. Yeah they're an Israeli Chamber Music Group. They met when they were in middle school and they're now one of the best chamber music groups in the world. They were mentored by ITAR Perlman who was also in town this weekend performing a sold out concert. Now I understand they are planning something ambitious. Yeah they are planning to play Beethoven cycle number one which is which includes some of his greatest compositions. You'll hear music from his early years that were influenced by Mozart and then more later complex reflections of his life. Let's hear what they sound like. This is the Ariel quartet performing Beethoven. Was in the Ariel quartet. It's two women. Russian violinist Alexandra Kozlowski and Israeli cellist Amit even Tove and two men. We have Israeli violinist Gershon Gare Chekhov and young crooning plays viola and violin. This show is part of art powers season and that's bringing in a lot of international acts isn't it. Yeah art power at UC San Diego has always brought a diverse lineup both in terms of acts and nationalities. So coming up they have the Beijing Dance Theater and they're also bringing McCune which is a popular young band from Zimbabwe. They're also very innovative. They do new things and they're bringing Dance dance and that is this tap choreographer and she does a lot of creative things she brings electronic trigger boards and she creates new sounds and not a lot of people know what she does and we're gonna be able to see it thanks to them. Look Art power brings the Ariel quartet to UC San Diego tonight. You can find more weekend event options always at K PBS dot org slash arts and I've been speaking with K PBS Arts Editor Nina Garin. Thanks a lot. Thanks have a good weekend.