Seat Filler: 's Guide to Theater 

  Arias with a Twist
Downtown drag artiste and Zumanity alum Joey Arias returns with a pimped-out version of his fantastical 2008 multimedia extravaganza directed and designed by famed gay puppeteer Basil Twist. Whether probed by aliens, seduced by devils during a ’shroom-induced hallucination, or possessed by Billie Holiday while fronting a jazz band of marionettes, Arias reaffirms his status as incomparable entertainer and infamous oddity.
Abrons Arts Center’s Henry Street Settlement, through October 16.

  Southern Comfort
At turns uplifting and devastating, this outstanding folk-bluegrass musical by Julianne Wick and Dan Collins — based on Kate Davis’s 2001 documentary — celebrates a “chosen family” of transgender friends in rural Georgia who debate whether gender is in the head or between the legs. Annette O’Toole is a revelation as Robert Eads, a trans man denied care for ovarian cancer, and Jeff McCarthy stuns as his trans girlfriend Lola Cola.
CAP21 Black Box Theatre, through October 29.

  Follies
After a hit run at the Kennedy Center, a near-flawless revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s 1971 masterpiece sparkles on Broadway like fine champagne. As old frenemies stuck in a soapy love quadrangle, peerless divas Bernadette Peters and Jan Maxwell headline this reunion for aging chorines, but the show’s secret weapon is Elaine Paige, who entertains maybe-gay cater waiters with her impassioned “I'm Still Here.”
Marquis Theatre, through January 22.