In Rajiv Joseph's "Archduke," now playing at Roundabout Theatre Company, a group of young Serbian revolutionaries plot the murder that sparked World War I while obsessing over women they've never touched and coughing up blood into handkerchiefs. They're all virgins, all consumed by tuberculosis, all desperate to mean something before they die—which makes the whole assassination plot feel less like political conviction and more like a particularly dramatic bucket list.

Bat Boy is about a half-human, half-bat creature discovered in a cave in West Virginia who gets taken in by the town veterinarian and his family. The vet's wife tries to civilize him. The teenage daughter falls for him. The townspeople want him dead. There's religious allegory, there's a revival meeting, there's forbidden love, there's murder, and…

October wasn't exactly a banner month for New York theater. But buried between the disappointments were five shows that reminded us why we do this. Here's what's worth your time.