One of the best new musicals of the season isn’t on Broadway, but off — the funny, touching “Dear Evan Hansen.” Ben Platt (from both “Pitch Perfect” movies) gives a remarkable performance in the title role, a dorky, friendly high school senior who finds himself at the center of an internet hoax. Bolstered by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s catchy, superbly crafted score, the show looks at how the Web can build something up, then just as easily destroy it — and how teens build identities and connections. At times the tone recalls YA fiction’s emo king, John Green, but the show has an identity of its own. Ironically, considering the subject, it feels real. (At Second Stage through May 29.)
Kiki and Herb — the decadently angry alter egos of Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman — embodied shock cabaret in the 1990s and early ’00s, then quit after their Carnegie Hall debut in 2004. Now they’re back, older but not calmer, with the epic “Kiki and Herb: Seeking Asylum!” show — two-and-a-half hours of unbridled crass and sass. The mock-elderly lounge lizards fill us in on what happened over the past decade while delivering boozy renditions of tunes by Arcade Fire, Nina Simone, Prince and Paul Williams. Don’t miss this New York institution. (At Joe’s Pub through May 22.)
Last chance to catch Patrice Chéreau’s chilling staging of “Elektra” at the Met! This is the kind of opera where the needle starts in the red and stays there for two hours. And when we say red, we mean it — everybody in there is obsessed with blood. Swedish soprano Nina Stemme is onstage the entire time in the title role, wringing her hands, throwing herself on the floor in despair, dancing a mad dance — and of course singing with the desperation of the damned. (At the Met, Saturday at 8 p.m.)
The best part about the New Group’s “The Sensuality Party” is that you don’t know who the actors are — they’re embedded in the audience and reveal themselves as the show goes on. That element of surprise is the most interesting thing about this overlong, self-satisfied show about campus sexuality and power games — and, fittingly, the production is staged in colleges around the city. Six freshmen discuss the title’s event (coy code for orgy) and its aftermath in graphic, repetitive details. Playwright Justin Kuritzkes also works in a 9/11 theme, which overwhelms the story. The play’s narcissistic, shallow youths recall the ’80s novel “Less Than Zero,” but the show falls far short of its predecessor. (At various venues through May 13.)