Top 21 arts events for February
February is Black History Month and, of course, time for that annual bane of singles and procrastinating spouses alike, Valentine’s Day. Both themes are well represented on the arts calendar. But what about National Bird-Feeding Month, National Weatherperson’s Day and International Polar Bear Day? Those not so much … but maybe next year.
1/30-5/1: ‘Betye Saar: Still Tickin’ ’
The octogenarian artist from Los Angeles made a splash in 1972 with “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima,” taking a racist figuring and arming her with a rifle and hand grenade. A pioneer of “assemblage art” using found objects, she also makes collages and prints, the latter often focusing on mystical symbols, all of which are represented in this career retrospective exhibit.
Details: Saturday, Jan. 30, through Sunday, May 1. Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, 7374 E. Second St. $7; $5 students; free age 15 and under. Free to all on Thursdays and after 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. 480-874-4666, smoca.org.
2/5-7: ‘Carmen’
Just because it’s a tragedy doesn’t mean it isn’t romantic. Sung in French and set in Spain, it is perhaps the most instantly identifiable opera and tells the story of a love triangle involving a saucy cigarette girl turned smuggler, a celebrity bullfighter and a handsome soldier. Arizona Opera’s latest production moves the action to the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. Things don’t end well, but it’s a passionate ride.
Details: Feb. 5-7. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Symphony Hall, 75 N. Second St., Phoenix. $25-$135. 602-266-7464, azopera.org.
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2/5: ‘One Drop of Love’
Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni’s one-woman show explores the evolution of the concept of race and how it has shaped intimate relationships over 300 years of American history. The multimedia performance has gotten rave reviews and bears the imprimatur of co-producers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, whom DiGiovanni has known since childhood.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5. Mesa Arts Center, 1 E. Main St. $26. 480-644-6500, mesaartscenter.com.
2/5-20: ‘The Notebook Has No Legs’
All Puppet Players follow up their R-rated spoofs of “The Exorcist,” “Top Gun” and “Fifty Shades of Grey” with this one targeting sap-master author Nicholas Sparks and the 2004 film starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. In this version, the former is Ryan Goosling, and he is actually, like, a goose. For immature audiences only, but definitely not for kids.
Details: Friday, Feb. 5, through Saturday, Feb. 20. Playhouse on the Park, Viad Tower, 1850 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. $22; $54 VIP. 602-254-2151, allpuppetplayers.com.
2/5-21: ‘Looking Over the President’s Shoulder’
Black Theatre Troupe regular Walter Belcher starts in this one-man show that tells the true story of Alonzo Fields, who gave up his dream of singing opera to take a job at the White House and became the first African-American head butler. No, it’s not the stage version of “The Butler” – that was about his successor. Fields served four presidents, Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower.
Details: Friday, Feb. 5, through Sunday, Feb. 21. Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center, 1333 E. Washington St., Phoenix. $32. 602-258-8129, blacktheatretroupe.org.
2/5-13, 18-21: ‘Passing Strange’
An unlikely Broadway hit in 2008, it’s half rock concert and half autobiography of musician Mark Stewart, aka Stew. His fictionalized story is a “search for the real” that takes him from the not-so-mean streets of a middle-class Black neighborhood to a new life as a young bohemian in Europe. Taking on the challenge of this unconventional musical is iTheatre Collaborative, with an all-African-American cast directed by Jeff Kennedy, who recently served as music director for Phoenix Theatre’s rocking hit “The Toxic Avenger.”
Details: Two venues. Friday, Feb. 5, through Saturday, Feb. 13, at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe St., Phoenix. $20. 602-252-8497, herbergertheater.org. Thursday, Feb. 18, through Sunday, Feb. 21, at Second Stage West, ASU West, 4701 W. Thunderbird Road, Glendale. $5-$10. campus.asu.edu/west/events.
2/6-4/17: ‘Confluence: Inter-generational Collaborations’
For this exhibit, the Heard Museum paired established Native American artists from the Southwest with those aspiring to be the next generation, all between the ages of 16 and 20. Featuring works in diverse media, including painting, textiles, metal, film and fashion design, it highlights the importance of mentorship in creative endeavors.
Details: Saturday, Feb. 6, through Sunday, April 17. Heard Museum, 2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. $18 (discounts for seniors, students and children). 602-252-8848, heard.org.
2/11: Quint Quintet
Virtuoso violinist Philippe Quint leads this outfit devoted to the “nuevo tango” music of Astor Piazzolla. The 20th-century composer took the instruments and fiery rhythms of Argentina’s dance music and married it to the complexity of classical, with ecstatic results.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11. Mesa Arts Center, 1 E. Main St. $30-$45. 480-644-6500, mesaartscenter.com.
2/11-14: ‘The Sleeping Beauty’
Tchaikovsky only wrote three ballet scores, but they are all biggies. “Sleeping Beauty” was his second, coming between “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker.” Ballet Arizona’s production is based on the original choreography by Marius Petipa, with a few updates by the company’s acclaimed artistic director, Ib Andersen.
Details: Thursday, Feb. 11, through Sunday, Feb. 14. Symphony Hall, 75 N. Second St., Phoenix. 602-381-1096, balletaz.org.
2/11-28: ‘Fences’
August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, presented by Arizona Theatre Company, is about an aging Black baseball star born one generation too early to have had a shot in the newly desegregated major leagues. Set in the 1950s, it is part of the playwright’s “Pittsburgh Cycle,” which explores the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century.
Details: Thursday, Feb. 11, through Sunday, Feb. 28. Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe St., Phoenix. $28-$73. 602-256-6995, arizonatheatre.org.
2/11-3/31: ‘Cattle Track Legends’
The exhibit at the Larsen Gallery spotlights three key Valley artists. Philip C. Curtis was the founding father of fine-art painting in Arizona, dubbed “the Magritte of the Old West.” Fritz Scholder reinvented Native American art for a post-stereotypical age. And Mark McDowell makes paintings, drawings and prints that embrace the West but ignores the tropes of Western art. And all of them chose to live and work at the Cattle Track Art Compound, a creative oasis in the urban desert of Scottsdale. (Opening reception is 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11.)
Details: Thursday, Feb. 11, through Thursday, March 31. Larsen Gallery, 3705 N. Bishop Lane, Scottsdale. Free. 480-941-0900, larsengallery.com.
2/12-3/18: ‘Exotic Art Show 32’
The Alwun House blazed the trail for the downtown gallery scene. A Valentine’s tradition, its “Exotic Art Show” spotlights nudes, fetishes, phalluses and the like. The naughtiness kicks off with a “Phantasmagorical Spectacular Opening” with live music and performance art at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12 ($20-$25).
Details: Friday, Feb. 12, through Friday, March 18. Alwun House, 1204 E. Roosevelt St., Phoenix. $5. 602-253-7887, alwunhouse.org.
2/14-4/10: ‘Goodnight Moon’
The beloved bedtime story promises to wake up the wee ones in this stage musical featuring Clarabelle the Daredevil Cow and other cutesy critters, which the Washington Post called “sweetly impish.” Performed by Childsplay, Tempe’s acclaimed professional theater for young audiences.
Details: Feb. 14-April 10. Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway. $12-$25. 480-350-2822, childsplayaz.org.
2/16-21: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’
Jason Robert Brown, of “The Last Five Years” fame, won a Tony Award for his lush, gently operatic score to this 2014 Broadway musical. Based on the bestselling novel, it’s about an Iowa housewife who falls for a mysterious photographer. The national tour stars Elizabeth Stanley, who has originated roles on Broadway in “Million Dollar Quartet” and “Cry-Baby” as well as revivals of “On the Town” and “Company.”
Details: Tuesday, Feb. 16, through Sunday, Feb. 21. ASU Gammage, Mill Avenue and Apache Boulevard, Tempe. $25 and up. 480-965-3434, asugammage.com.
2/19: BalletBoyz
England’s young guns of dance perform a pair of recent commissions: “Mesmerics,” choreographed by acclaimed ballet innovator Christopher Wheeldon; and “The Murmuring,” by rising star Alexander Whitley and set to music by electronic duo Raime. The Guardian of London called the latter an ambitious work that contrasts “slow, organic change and the rupture of radical revolution, with choreography of surging masses of movement.”
Details: 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19. Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, 7380 E. Second St. $39-$69. 480-499-8587, scottsdaleperformingarts.org.
2/19-21: ‘Light Rail Plays 3.0’
Rising Youth Theatre’s mission is to create original works based on the real lives of Valley kids and teenagers, who work in collaboration with professional artists. The company also likes to take theater to unexpected places, including this third annual collection of short pieces performed on the trains and at the stops of Valley Metro light rail in central Phoenix.
Details: Friday, Feb. 19, through Sunday, Feb. 21. On Central Avenue between Roosevelt Street and Camelback Road. Free. risingyouththeatre.org.
2/19-3/6: ‘City of Angels’
This 1989 Broadway musical is an homage to film noir, intermixing a dark comedy about a disillusioned screenwriter with the detective story he is writing. The jazzy score is by Cy Coleman, best known for “Sweet Charity,” and Theater Works’ production is directed by Phillip Fazio, returning after turning Sondheim’s “Follies” into a hit last year.
Details: Friday, Feb. 19, through Sunday, March 6. Peoria Center for the Performing Arts, 8355 W. Peoria Ave. $14-$35. 623-815-7930, theaterworks.org.
2/23: Mozart’s 25th and Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony
Arizona Musicfest, the winter concert series in the northeast Valley, kicks off Orchestra Week with two masterworks. Maestro Bob Moody conducts an ensemble featuring top players from leading orchestras around the country, including violinist Frank Huang, who holds the title of concertmaster here and with the New York Philharmonic.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23. Pinnacle Presbyterian Church, 25150 N. Pima Road, Scottsdale. $54-$70. 480-840-0457, azmusicfest.org.
Arizona Musicfest lineup has Al Jarreau, Joshua Bell and a world-class orchestra
2/24-3/20: ‘Evita’
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical about Eva Perón, the controversial first lady of Argentina, is the biggest production of the season at Phoenix Theatre. With apologies to “Phantom” fans, it might also be Lloyd Webber’s biggest artistic success, with a complex story well-told by lyricist Tim Rice and some great tunes beyond the big “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.” “Another Suitcase in Another Hall,” sung by the president’s mistress after her unceremonious ejection, is an aching highlight.
Details: Wednesday, Feb. 24, through Sunday, March 20. Phoenix Theatre, 100 E. McDowell Road. $30-$80. 602-254-2151, phoenixtheatre.com.
2/25-27: ‘Catwalk’
Scorpius Dance Theatre, the poppy troupe famed for “A Vampire Tale,” reprises this fashion-runway-inspired work by choreographer Lisa Starry. First performed in 2010, it’s a fun, sexy celebration of glamour set to rock rhythms and showcasing clothing design by local fashionistas.
Details: 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25; 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 26-27. Phoenix Theatre, 100 E. McDowell Road. 602-254-2151, scorpiusdance.com.
2/27: Ben Vereen
The consummate “triple threat,” he came to fame on Broadway, playing Judas Iscariot in “Jesus Christ Superstar” and winning a Tony Award for “Pippin.” He returns to town with his career-retrospective “Steppin’ Out Live With Ben Vereen,” a mix of singing, dancing and reminiscing. (Bet on some sort of homage to his showbiz idol, Sammy Davis Jr.)
Details: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27. Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave. $38-$58. 480-782-2680, chandlercenter.org.
Reach the reporter at kerry.lengel@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4896. Follow him: Twitter.com/KerryLengel and Facebook.com/LengelonTheater