'Wicked'

Do summer temps have you howling, “I’m melting, I’m melting”? Beat the heat at the Boston Opera House, where the backstory of the H2O-averse witch who made that line famous is currently taking center stage in Wicked. The Tony-winning musical, based on local author Gregory Maguire’s best-selling book of the same name, serves as a prequel to and retelling of The Wizard of Oz, following the two unlikely friends who would grow up to be Glinda the Good Witch and the—quite misunderstood, as it turns out—Wicked Witch of the West. Fall under Wicked’s spell before it closes its run on July 23.