Today, most of these arts are structured into half-day long affairs, but you can usually by single-act tickets.
落語
lit. fall story
At the 浅草演芸ホール, you can just purchase a ticket for ¥2000 and spent an evening watching 落語 and some music perfomances all evening long, entering (once) and leaving when you want.
A story that I heard and enjoyed is the 千両みかん, about a single orange being sold for an insane price.
歌舞伎
At the 歌舞伎座 in 東京, as for most traditional arts, they sell single-act tickets which I find much more preferrable to seeing 4 hours of plays.
They hand out iPads for foreigners (1000 ¥ in cash) that show good subtitles.
め組の喧嘩
めぐみのけんか
an Edo-flavoured play that displays a conflict between すも wrestlers and a fire brigade.
I thought it was hilarious, the dramatised fighting scenes took some getting into, but ended up being quite enjoyable.