Top 10 arts events around Phoenix in August

The hottest ticket in the arts this month is Broadway’s “Wicked,” which returns to ASU Gammage for a six-week run. Other top picks for August include genre-bending musician Esperanza Spalding and a 125th birthday party for horror writer H.P. Lovecraft.

‘Murder Ballad’

Cutting-edge musicals are the raison d’etre of the Valley’s newest stage troupe, A/C Theatre Company, which debuts with this alt-rock tuner about a love triangle that hinges on a little blunt-force trauma. Unapologetically reveling in tabloid prurience, the show debuted off-Broadway in 2012 and features the music of Juliana Nash of Boston indie band Talking to Animals.

Details: Friday, Aug. 7, through Saturday, Aug. 22. Phoenix Theatre, 100 E. McDowell Road. $22. 602-254-2151, actheatrecompany.org.

Spirit of the Arts

The spirit in question is rum, as Arizona and national artists have teamed up to make fancy objets out of empty liquor bottles donated by the Breadfruit & Rum Bar (a downtown Jamaican restaurant). These works will be auctioned off as part of a fundraiser to support renovations for the Phoenix Center for the Arts, a performance and educational venue founded in 1975 by the city and now operated as an independent non-profit.

Details: 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15. Phoenix Center for the Arts, 1202 N. Third St. $75. 602-254-3100, phoenixcenterforthearts.org.

Esperanza Spalding: ‘Emily's D+Evolution’

The genre-defying bassist, cellist and singer — middle name Emily — describes her latest project as a series of live musical vignettes: “We will be staging the songs as much as we play them, using characters, video and the movement of our bodies.”

Details: 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15. Mesa Arts Center, 1 E. Main St. $35. 480-644-6500, mesaartscenter.com.

Convergence Ballet Company: ‘Metempsychosis’

Classically trained dancers performing choreography with a contemporary edge is the mission of this upstart troupe led by artistic director Jennifer Cafarella, who grew up in the Valley and danced with such companies as Portland Ballet in Maine and José Mateo Ballet Theatre in Boston.

Details: 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15; 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16. Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway. $35. 480-350-2822, convergenceballet.org.

National Theatre Live: ‘A View From the Bridge’

Arthur Miller’s 1955 tragedy is about a Brooklyn longshoreman who is overprotective toward his orphaned niece — and about the American Dream, of course. This encore screening is from a performance in March by London’s Young Vic theater, starring Mark Strong, best known for his roles in “Sherlock Holmes” (with Robert Downey Jr.) and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”

Details: 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16. Phoenix Art Museum, 1625 N. Central Ave. $18. 602-257-1222, phxart.org.

H.P. Lovecraft’s Birthday

Performance artist Ashley Naftule hosts this fifth annual salute to the horror writer who built a new mythology around a tentacled destroyer god named Cthulhu. Macabre music and otherworldly poetry will be part of the mix, along with birthday prizes and games. (Last year, they played Pin the Tentacle on the Shoggoth.)

Details: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20. The Trunk Space, 1506 N.W. Grand Ave., Phoenix. $5. 602-256-6006, thetrunkspace.com.

‘Wicked’

It’s the 11th-longest-running show in Broadway history, and it has its sights set on overtaking “Rent” next year. Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, it’s a wildly clever retelling of “The Wizard of Oz” that reimagines the Wicked Witch of the West as a young idealist crusading for the rights of talking animals. But the real secret to the musical’s success is its affirmation of the power of female friendship, which will make it a “Popular” girls’ night out when the touring show visits Tempe for the fourth time.

Details: Wednesday, Aug. 26, through Sunday, Oct. 4. ASU Gammage, Mill Avenue and Apache Boulevard, Tempe. $30 and up. 480-965-3434, asugammage.com.

‘Lucky Stiff’

Before “Ragtime” and “Seussical,” playwright Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty had their first collaboration with this farce about an English shoe salesman who, in order to collect an inheritance, agrees to take the corpse of his rich uncle on vacation to Monte Carlo. The show premiered off-Broadway in 1988 — a year before “Weekend at Bernie’s” hit the movie theaters, just for the record.

Details: Friday, Aug. 28, through Sunday, Sept. 20. Arizona Broadway Theatre, 7701 W. Paradise Lane, Peoria. Tickets start at $65 ($45 show only) and are subject to demand pricing. 623-776-8400, azbroadway.org.

‘Super Heroes: Art! Action! Adventure!’

Many American Indian legends feature powerful animal heroes that teach life lessons. In recent years, American Indian artists have been inspired to create new Native superheroes that are charged with defending their communities. See works of these superheroes, old and new, at this exhibition that will launch right before Phoenix Comicon.

Details: Through Monday, Aug. 24. 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays; 6-10 p.m. on First Friday. Heard Museum, 2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. $13.50-$18; $7.50 for students and children ages 6-12; free for children ages 5 and younger, American Indians, museum members and on First Friday. 602-252-8840, heard.org.

‘MetaModern’

The current fascination with (nostalgia for?) modernism — the clean, bold lines that defined the look of early and mid-20th-century design — inspired this exhibit that repurposes and comments on the art of a previous generation. For example, in Edgar Orlaineta’s sculpture “Narcissus,” a pair of bright red chairs are rotated and attached as mirror images in a sort of 3-D Rorschach test.

Details: Through Sunday, Aug. 30. Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, 7374 E. Second St. $7; $5 students; free age 15 and younger. 480-874-4666, smoca.org.

Kellie Hwang contributed to this list.