7 pm: Family

In the newest version of “Sesame Street Live: Let’s Be Friends,” little Elmo and Zoe start a friendship club for monsters, but soon open the doors to all; they build a clubhouse and put on a circus, too, in this musical stage extravaganza based on the PBS show.

* “Sesame Street Live: Let’s Be Friends,” Forum, 3900 Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, 7 p.m.; also Friday, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10:30 a.m., 2 and 5:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1 and 4:30 p.m. $12 to $20. (310) 419-3185. Also at Terrace Theatre, Long Beach Convention Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, May 3, 7 p.m.; May 4, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.; May 5, 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.; May 6, 1 and 4:30 p.m. $15 to $20. (562) 436-3661. Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, May 24, 7 p.m.; May 25, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.; May 26, 10:30 a.m., 2 and 5:30 p.m.; May 27, 1 and 4:30 p.m. $10 to $14.50. (805) 449-2787. Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, June 14, 7 p.m.; June 15, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.; June 16, 10:30 a.m., 2 and 5:30 p.m.; June 17, 1 and 4:30 p.m. $15 to $20. (714) 556-2787, Ext. 6677. Also, all venues: (213) 480-3232, (714) 740-2000; (805) 583-8700.

8 pm: Pop Music

L.A.’s “alternative”--i.e. non-gangsta--rap acts such as Jurassic 5 and Dilated Peoples have gathered plenty of respect but relatively low record sales. Is it time for the tide to turn? Black Eyed Peas’ single “Request Line” recently busted up to No. 2 on the national sales chart.

* Black Eyed Peas, with Burning Star, at the House of Blues Anaheim, 1530 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, 8 p.m. $21. (714) 778-2583.

8 pm: Theater

“3hree,” is the umbrella title for an eclectic trio of new one-act musicals chosen by director Harold Prince. The bill includes “The Mice,” by Julia Jordan, Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, about rodents driven indoors by a winter freeze in a small Minnesota town; “Lavender Girl,” a Jazz Age musical, by James D. Waedekin and John Bucchino; and “The Flight of the Lawnchair Man,” by Peter Ullian and Robert Lindsey Nassif, inspired by amateur pilots’ efforts to fly using balloons.

* “3hree,” Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A., Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Also this Sunday and May 6, 13, 20, 7:30 p.m.; May 24, 31, June 7, 2 p.m. Ends June 10. $35 to $70. (213) 628-2772.

8 pm: Theater

Marsha Mason, Hector Elizondo, Charles Durning, Michael Cristofer and Jennifer Tilly are among the all-star cast performing L.A. Theatre Works’ live radio-theater production of the Chekhov classic, “The Cherry Orchard,” premiering a new translation by Nicholas Saunders and Frank Dwyer.

* “The Cherry Orchard,” L.A. Theatre Works at Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A., today and Friday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 4 and 7:30 p.m. (Dark Saturday.) $34 and $38. (310) 827-0889.

*

CalArts Spring Dance Concert, 8 p.m. tonight through Saturday and May 3-5 at the school’s Sharon Disney Lund Dance Theater, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, (661) 253-7800 or (818) 362-2315.