The best Broadway shows for kids right now

There's a reason Simba's story continues to draw in crowds year after year: It's an amazing production with gorgeous sets, unique puppetry and a moving score from Elton John and Tim Rice. Most importantly, the cast is fresh and the musical numbers are sharp. This isn't some faded, tired musical for out-of-towners—it's for lovers of the theater, and seeing The Lion King live is something like a rite of passage for New York kids. Unconvinced? Ask the 100 million+ audience members worldwide who've seen the performance. Ages 8 and up.

Based on novelist Gregory Maguire's 1995 adult variation on L. Frank Baum's Oz mythology, Wicked provides a prequel to the children's book and movie. The musical addresses complex themes, such as standards of beauty, morality and–believe it or not–opposition to fascism. Thanks to a witty book by Winnie Holzman (creator of ’90s angstfest My So-Called Life) and Stephen Schwartz's robust score, Wicked soars. While children five and up are permitted in the theater, little ones might be afraid of the flying monkeys—we recommend this show for kids that are a tiny bit older. Ages 8 and up.

The world of Harry Potter is now on Broadway, Hogwarts and all, and it's a triumph of theatrical magic. Set two decades after the final chapters of J.K. Rowling’s world-shaking kid-lit heptalogy, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child combines grand storytelling with astonishing stagecraft. Richly elaborated by director John Tiffany, the show looks like a million bucks (or, in this case, a reported $68 million). It works: The experience is transporting. Ages 10 and up.

Christmas has come early to Broadway this year: the latest Broadway revival of this 2010 holiday musical is really elfin’ good. Based on the 2003 Will Ferrell movie, the show follows a guileless manchild named Buddy, raised in holly as one of Santa’s helpers, who travels to New York in search of his father. In the lead role, Grey Henson is a creature of twinkle from his eyes down to his toes; it’s a pleasure to take off with him on Elf’s magic ride. Ages 8 and up.

This adaptation of the Disney classic features kiddie-crowd-pleasing laughs and upbeat music, which includes songs such as "A Whole New World" and "Friend Like Me," plus several new tunes. Kids will be dazzled by the color-drenched production and awe-inspiring special effects: confetti cannon, anyone? Ages 8 and up.

On a mock concert stage, backed by an all-female band, the six wives of Tudor monarch Henry VIII air their grievances in the form of modern pop, and most of them have plenty to complain about. The queens sing their heads off, and the audience loses its mind. Some of the stories are pretty dark—the 16th century wasn't always pretty—but the girl-power spin and killer bops will be catnip for older kids. Ages 10 and up.

“Keep it light, keep it tight, keep it fun, and then we’re done!” That’s the pithy advice that the indignant 16th-century housewife Anne Hathaway imparts to her husband, William Shakespeare, as a way to improve his play Romeo and Juliet. It is also the ethos of the new Broadway jukebox musical & Juliet, a quasi-Elizabethan romp through the many pop megahits of the Swedish songwriter-producer Max Martin. This show is what it is: It gives you the hooks and it gets the ovations. Ages 10 and up.

Broadway travels back in time to the 1950s, by way of the 1980s, in a musical adaptation of the hit 1985 movie that offers comedic science fiction with an Oedipal twist. The stage version is no masterpiece—it's essentially a vehicle for the car—but it's noisy and colorful and there's a flying DeLorean. Ages 10 and up.