The Play That Goes Wrong
Photograph: Alastair Muir
Photograph: Alastair Muir

Best Off Broadway shows for kids and families

Off Broadway shows for kids make for a memorable family outing.

Adam Feldman
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There's no business like show business, and there's no place better for shows than New York City. The sheer range of Off Broadway show for kids proves just that. Each of these theater productions offers something unique, including blue men from another world, wild slapstick comedy, a man-eating plant and—much to kids' delight—more bubbles than you've probably ever seen. (Of course, there are plenty of great Broadway shows for kids as well.) 

RECOMMENDED: More theater for kids in NYC

Have you already checked out these cool Off Broadway shows for kids? New York has plenty of other fun activities up its sleeve. Visit these family attractions, grab a bite to eat after the show at one of these fun restaurants or try to check the 101 things to do with kids in NYC off your list. 

Off Broadway Shows for Kids

  • Puppet shows
  • Midtown West

The Chicago collective Manual Cinema (Ada/Ava) combines live actors and musicians with puppetry, overhead projectors and filmic techniques to create virtuosically handmade theater experiences. The company visited the New Vic in 2022 with Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About A Terrible Monster, which was aimed at very young kids. This time, it aims a little older with a reprise of its first show for family audiences: its 2017 adaptation of Edith Nesbit’s 1910 novel about a girl who finds herself trapped inside the miniature metropolis she has been building out of household objects to avoid the annoyances of real life. Ages 6 and up.

  • Circuses & magic
  • Midtown West

Zip Zap Circus visits the New Vic with a distinctively South African show that infuses circus arts (such as aerialism, Cyr wheel and juggling) and local dance forms (such as gumboot and pantsula) with the generous communitarian spirit known in Bantu cultures as ubuntu. Founded in 1992, the troupe draws performers from its youth and outreach programs in the Cape Town area. Families can participate in free lobby activities for 45 minutes before every show and 20 minutes after. Ages 5 and up.

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  • Interactive
  • Hell's Kitchen
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

Role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons are inherently theatrical: The players are all playing roles, after all. But the idea of building an actual stage show around the game—an entirely improvised one, guided by audience suggestions and decisions—seems, well, a little dicey. But an element of the unexpected is one of the things that makes this goofy fantasy show such fun. Whether or not you know much about D&D going in, it’s an adventuring party you won't want to miss. Ages 5 and up.—Shaye Weaver

  • Comedy
  • Hell's KitchenOpen run

Mischief Theatre’s long-running slapstick farce finds six amateur British actors (and two crew members who get pressed into service onstage) trying to perform a hackneyed whodunnit amid challenges that escalate from minor mishaps to bona fide medical emergencies and massive structural calamities. Kids with a taste for zany comedy will be rolling in the aisles. Ages 10 and up. 

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  • Hell's KitchenOpen run
  • Recommended

Husband and wife duo Fan and Ana Yang have traveled world-wide to dazzle their audiences with their self-titled masterpiece, "bubble artistry." As lights flicker and music plays, prepare to catch some of the wonkiest looking bubbles you've ever encountered. Kids and parents alike will love how these soapy spectacles create a can't-miss experience. Ages 5 and up.

  • Musicals
  • Greenwich Village

Michael Sgouros and Brenda Bell's child-oriented musical adaptation of the classic folktale— as rendered in books by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and Madame De Villeneuve—celebrates a bookish girl's ability to see past the hirsute appearance or her kidnapper. Pierce Cassedy directs this 70-minute production; the first performance of each two-show day is preceded by an hour-long arts workshop at which kids can meet members of the company and create a mask to take home. Ages 3 and up.

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  • Circuses & magic
  • Open run
  • Recommended

For more than two decades, this proudly old-school series is heir to the vaudeville tradition. Many of the acts incorporate comedic elements, and audience participation is common; kids make especially adorable assistants. You get a lot of value and variety for your magic dollar, and in contrast to some fancier magic shows, this one feels like comfort food: an all-you-can-eat buffet to which you’re encouraged to return until you’re as stuffed as a hat full of rabbits. Ages 6 and up.

  • Circuses & magic
  • Hell's Kitchen

On select weekend afternoons in the theater district, veteran magic men Jim Vines and Carl Mercurio perform a comedic set of tricks and illusions that is especially tailored to delight young audiences—though the rest of the family is likely to enjoy it, too. And at just $25 a ticket, this is a surprisingly affordable Times Square outing for a larger group. Ages 6 and up.

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