Mark Your Calendar: What To Do Around San Diego This January
Speaker 1: 00:00 It's the first week of 2020 and if your calendar is already filling up this month, we've got a couple of more events you may want to add from a Tony award winning musical to concerts and dance. Nina Garin, former KPBS arts editor and current editor of Pacific magazine is here to tell us all about what's happening around San Diego this month. Nina, welcome. Hi, good to be here. Great to have you. As always, first up, the San Diego debut of the Broadway hit dear Evan Hansen, what is this show about? It's a complicated plot, but basically it's about an anxious teen boy named Evan. Um, he doesn't have a lot of friends, so a therapist tells him to write letters to himself, which is where the dear Evan Hansen comes from. Um, this letter F gets into kind of the wrong hands and there's a tragedy that connects Evan with this other family and that gives Evan the opportunity to reinvent himself. Speaker 1: 00:52 But all of that is sort of based on a lie. So the musical is about him, but also it's, he gonna get found out. And tell us about the San Diego ties to the musical. The musical was directed by Michael grave. Um, he is a UC S D graduate, but really well known in San Diego as the former artistic director of the LA Jolla Playhouse. And you just saw the show. What did you think of it? Um, I really loved it. It has a lot of social media in it. So when you're in the audience you see kind of like Instagram, Facebook, video chat. So it's all worked into the plot, which is really unique. And the songs were written by passage and Paul who did Lala land and the greatest showman. So the songs are pretty catchy and really emotional. There's a lot of crying in the show, so just be prepared. Wow. All right, dear Evan Hansen runs through January 12th at the civic center. There are also a number of big musical artists coming to town this month. First up, after a long height is the metal band tool is back. Here's a little track off their new album beer inoculum Speaker 2: 02:18 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 02:19 and this is the group's first tour and first album in a couple of years. Is that right? Well, it's the first studio album in 13 years, which is a long time. Um, and it's the first tour since 2016 and it's, the fans have kind of been waiting for this. I have a funny story. This was actually the first band that I ever reviewed as a professional and it was very difficult because their songs are long and rambling and not rambling in a bad way. But um, they, the song titles don't really correlate and it was a challenge. So tool has like a interesting place in my heart. So anyway. Interesting. Sounds like they go on a lot of different directions. Um, what our tool fan saying about this new album, they seem to really love it. They are saying that it kind of is the, it's what tool is all about. There are songs on this album, there are six songs on this album that are over 10 minutes long and it's, the length of the album is almost an hour. And a half. And so this is, you know, it's, it's considered kind of art metal, so it has all of the, the things that the fans have been waiting for for 13 years and tool. We'll be in San Diego on January 10th and 12th at VA has arena another musical artist at the stage in San Diego this month. Is McKayla Stross known as King princess. Here's cheap queen Speaker 3: 03:42 sometimes, sometimes. Speaker 1: 03:59 And she's experiencing some pretty big success in a relatively short amount of time. Who is she? Yeah, she is a 21 year old singer songwriter. She was recently on Saturday night live. Um, so she has been getting a lot of attention. Her parents were actually musicians and she grew up with a recording studio and so she's really good at manipulating sounds and doing all those effects that we heard. Her music is really honest. She has a dry sense of humor and they're very confessional songs, which I think is part of her appeal. Is that why you think? Yeah, her music has resonated so deeply with her fans. Yeah. And also her concerts are really inclusive and celebrate Tory. They're kind of like a safe space for everyone. And she's just a really smart songwriter. King princess will be in San Diego, January 28th at the observatory in North park. Speaker 1: 04:52 And finally there's dance. The Martha Graham dance company is also returning to San Diego. The dancers in this show have been described as most skilled and powerful dancers. You can ever hope to see a, what's it like? So it is very classical technique mixed with a modern sensibility. So you may not always know what's going on when you watch the dance, but the point is that you will definitely feel something. And the dance company is a longtime leader in contemporary dance. So tell us more about that. So Martha Graham was a modern dancer and a choreographer who basically changed American modern dance. She kind of wanted to show the inner self. Her company's been around for 93 years, some they took some time off, um, and they perform her over 180 works. Um, but lately the company's also been performing works of other modern choreographers, which is what you'll see as well when, when they're in San Diego. Fantastic. The Martha Graham dance company will be in San Diego, January 22nd at the civic theater. Nina Garren, editor in chief of Pacific magazine. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks and have a great weekend.
