guides

Family-friendly shows and performances in NYC – updated!

Book some tickets and take the kids to a performance the whole family will love!

By Meredith Kurnov, Editor & Publisher of Macaroni Kid Brooklyn NW September 11, 2025
Flip Circus
Image Credit: Flip Circus

As Fall approaches, local venues are announcing new seasons of live performances, and we couldn't be more excited! 

Living in a city bursting with the best talent, entertainment, and venues the world has to offer, we are so fortunate to have such convenient access to quality family performances! Here's a comprehensive round up of upcoming and ongoing family-friendly entertainment in and around Brooklyn and NYC over the next few months. We update the list regularly. Feel free to bookmark and circle back to this list for birthdays and special occasions! Click here for local show discounts. Missing a family-friendly show? Email us!

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BROOKLYN SHOWS

Brooklyn Public Library
The Brooklyn Public Library maintains an impressively diverse mix of FREE programming and performances for all ages. Click link above to check out their calendar! Pictured: Dweck Center at Central Library in Grand Army Plaza. Here's a kid-friendly selection:




The Old Stone House & Washington Park in Park Slope
The Old Stone House and Washington Park is a historic house museum, a Revolutionary War battle site, and the original home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. We are also a neighborhood cultural institution focused on connecting the past to the present through educational, environmental, and arts programming all year round.




Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn Heights/Dumbo
Annual programming includes many performances! Check the schedule for upcoming events.




Shapeshifter Lab in Park Slope
ShapeShifter Plus is a Brooklyn-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that seeks to promote innovative artistic expression and provide a home for artists to push the boundaries of musical, educational, and creative conventions.




The Jalopy Theatre in Red Hook
The Jalopy Theatre and School of Music is a multi-faceted arts space showcasing evolving folk and traditional music and art from NYC, the Americas, and the world. Programming supports artists, fosters multi-generational community, and provides enrichment and education about our shared musical heritage. Upcoming family-friendly highlights:




Rock and Roll Playhouse at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg
Ongoing: Sundays at 12:30pm, 12:30pm doors | Tickets are $16, Kids under 1 are free

Performing songs created by the most iconic musicians in rock history, The Rock and Roll Playhouse band offers its core audience of families with children age ten and under games, movement, stories and an opportunity to rock out in an effort to educate children and explore their creativity. Brooklyn Bowl has a full kid-friendly menu, adult-friendly bar, and bowling! 




Bindlestiff Family Cirkus Performances
Select dates across NYC | FREE

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus’ Flatbed Follies is an outdoor mobile venue that brings the performing arts into the streets. Developed in response to COVID, Flatbed Follies instantly became a vehicle offering joy and wonder to a recovering world. Performances take place upon innovative parade float stages modified to present circus acts. There is even a calliope wagon providing authentic circus music.





Kings Theatre in Flatbush
Discover the beauty of Kings Theatre, a historic venue in the heart of Brooklyn. Originally opened in 1929 and reopened after meticulous restoration in 2015, Kings boasts a rich history and stunning architecture that has made it a beloved cultural landmark for generations. Upcoming family-friendly highlights:




Flip Circus at McCarren Park in Williamsburg
November 28-30 | Click here for discounted $10-30 tickets
Prepare to be amazed by Flip Circus, a brand-new spectacle featuring national and international acts guaranteed to thrill audiences of all ages! Step inside the intimate big top and witness the extraordinary talents of acrobats, jugglers, dancers, clowns, and trapeze artists as they pour their heart and soul into every performance.With a focus on innovation, creativity, and imaginative acts, Flip Circus offers a fresh and exciting take on the traditional circus experience. 




Family Magic Shows at Brooklyn Magic Shop in Carroll Gardens
Ongoing: Select Saturday or Sundays | $25/ticket | For ages 5+

A 60-minute fun and engaging Family Magic Show. Through storytelling, lots of audience participation, and fun magical illusions; the entire family will leave feeling completely enchanted. Perfect for a fun-filled magical family day, right in the heart of Carroll Gardens!





Marionette Puppet Shows at Puppetworks in Park Slope
Ongoing: Saturdays, Sundays, & holidays at 12:30pm & 2:30pm | Tickets are $10 for kids, $11 for adults

Puppetworks is an intimate, nonprofit theater founded in 1980 presenting marionette puppet-show versions of classic tales.





Puppetsburg shows at locations around Brooklyn
Ongoing: Showtimes and pricing varies | For ages 0-4

Puppetsburg does interactive, culturally relevant puppet shows for 4mos-4yrs. Our shows are 45 minutes long and involve dancing, instruments, dress-up "photo-ops," and bubble time (!) followed by a different puppet story each week.





Hopalong Andrew kids concert at locations around Brooklyn
Ongoing: See locations below | $20 per family (cash or venmo)

Hopalong Andrew sings cowboy songs about city life, for young cowpokes performed in the great tradition of the American West. Locations include Dekalb Market Hall/CityPoint, Underwood Park, CityPoint BKLYN, Cadman Park, Fort Greene Park, and Carroll Park. Check Instagram for the latest schedule.




Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn
In the heart of Brooklyn since 2012, at the crossroads of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, Barclays Center is setting a new standard as the showcase venue for the world's most thrilling entertainment and sports events. Upcoming family-friendly highlights:




MANHATTAN SHOWS

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Kids, Teens, and Family Programs at in Upper West Side Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) is a cultural and civic cornerstone of New York City. The primary advocate for the entire Lincoln Center campus, our strategic priorities include: fostering collaboration and deepening impact across the Lincoln Center resident organizations; championing inclusion and increasing the accessibility and reach of Lincoln Center’s work; and nurturing innovation on stage and off to help ensure the arts are at the center of civic life for all. LCPA presents hundreds of programs each year, offered primarily for free and choose-what-you-pay, including many specially designed for young audiences, families, and those with disabilities.


Cinderella Samba at Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre in Central Park 
Ongoing: Thurs-Sundays through December 28 at 11am & 1pm | $10-15 Tickets | For ages 3-8

Cinderella Samba takes place in the lush landscape of Brazil. Thanks to her fairy godmother, Cinderella attends Rio de Janeiro's biggest Carnaval gala and dances with Prince Paulo. The lively production features an original commissioned musical soundtrack that brings samba center-stage. This production also features a festive Carnaval float, stunning sets, and one-of-a-kind marionettes donning vibrant celebration costumes. 


Fairytale Shows at the Galli Theater in FiDi 
Ongoing, Select weekend dates | Adults $25/Kids $20 | For kids 3+ 

The Galli Theater produces per year 10—14 modern and innovative adaptations of fairy tales from around the world that entertain and teach valuable life lessons. Galli’s unique style is that all shows are very interactive and with lots of improv elements. Past Fairytales performances include: The 3 Little Pigs, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Princess and the Pea, Rapunzel, Cinderella.


Vital Theatre Company at Actors Temple Theatre in Midtown
VITAL THEATRE COMPANY is a community of artists who believe that a shared theatrical experience profoundly affects people’s lives. We create stories that challenge our audience to ask questions, make discoveries and engage in dialogue.


92nd Street Y in Upper West Side
The 92nd Street Y, New York is a world-class cultural and community center where people all over the world connect through culture, arts, entertainment and conversation. For over 150 years, they have harnessed the power of arts and ideas to enrich, enlighten and change lives, and the power of community to repair the world.


Family Performances at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall's mission is to present extraordinary music and musicians on the three stages of this legendary hall, to bring the transformative power of music to the widest possible audience, to provide visionary education programs, and to foster the future of music through the cultivation of new works, artists, and audiences


BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center
BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the longest operating performance venue in lower Manhattan, is dedicated to identifying, supporting and presenting established and emerging artists in a variety of disciplines, including music, dance and children’s theatre to the diverse Metropolitan audience.


Family Saturdays with NYC Ballet at Lincoln Center in Upper West Side
Saturdays, October 11, February 21, May 30 | Tickets start at $29 | For ages 5+

Join us as we make our way through the Company ranks, showing you the path from young student to professional dancer. Find out about dancers’ training, daily preparation, and what it is like to perform onstage at Lincoln Center in this interactive presentation designed especially for family audiences. This program will give you an exclusive sneak peek behind the curtain at the look of a dancer’s life.


Kids Theater Shows at The New Victory Theater in Midtown – Celebrating their 30th Birthday!
New Victory brings kids to the arts and the arts to kids in and beyond New York City. Powered by New 42, whose mission is to make extraordinary performing arts a vital part of everyone’s life from the earliest years onwards, New Victory connects its audiences to new cultures, artists and stories through its international programming online and in its historic Times Square theater.


The Little Orchestra Society at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College
October 18-19, December 20-21, February 7-8, April 25-26 | For ages 3-10

L.O.S. KIDS is an experiential presentation of orchestra music for children and families. What is better than one amazing composer? TWO of them, of course! Gershwin and Copland visit 92NY to share their love of NYC, and to fill our hearts with their iconic music! Young composers join to have their pieces premiered, alongside soloists and dancers from the New York Theatre Ballet School. Let’s celebrate the City in style!

Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center in UWS
Merkin Hall’s innovative programming, intimate scale and near perfect acoustics have earned it a reputation as one of New York City’s finest concert venues. Noted in the New York Times for its “reputation for avant-gardism of a cool and cerebral nature,” Merkin presents adventurous work—including many world premieres—by contemporary composers and some of today’s most acclaimed and inspiring performers.


NYC Children's Theatre at Theatre Row in Midtown
The mission of New York City Children’s Theater is to promote children’s literacy and social development through sustainable, accessible professional theater productions and arts-in-education programs.


Teatro SEA in the Lower East Side
Established in 1985, SEA (Society of the Educational Arts, Inc.), is the premiere Bilingual Arts-in-Education Organization and Latino Children’s Theatre in the United States. SEA has created and produced a combination of educational theatre productions and art workshops/programs specifically designed to examine, challenge and create possible solutions for current educational, social and community issues.


 

Ongoing Broadway and Off-Broadway shows:


Recommended for all ages:

Recommended for ages 5+:

  • Little Shop of Horrors Experience this cult favorite musical as it was meant to be seen.
  • Broadway Magic Hour Master magicians Jim Vines and Carl Mercurio take the stage in NYC's family-friendly magic show featuring comedy and mind-boggling mysteries.

Recommended for ages 6+:

  • Aladdin The beloved Disney story is brought to thrilling theatrical life. Discounted tix
  • Back to the Future The award-winning new musical based on Robert Zemeckis' hit 1985 movie arrives on Broadway.
  • Mamma Mia The smash hit musical featuring the songs of ABBA returns to Broadway for a limited run.
  • The Lion King Pride Rock comes to life in Disney’s long-running hit. Discounted tix

Recommended for ages 7+:

Recommended for ages 8+:

  • & Juliet The Olivier Award-winning West End hit featuring the songs of Max Martin arrives on Broadway. 
  • Buena Vista Social Club The GRAMMY® Award-winning album comes to thrilling life on stage. Some music you know by heart.
  • Hadestown The Tony-winning musical that follows the mythical quest of Orpheus. 
  • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Experience J.K. Rowling’s magical universe like never before. 
  • Hell's Kitchen A new musical featuring music and lyrics from 16-time Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys.
  • Maybe Happy Ending When Oliver's fellow Helper-Bot neighbor Claire asks to borrow his charger, what starts as an awkward encounter leads to a unique friendship, a surprising adventure, and maybe even...love?
  • MJ the Musical The life story of Michael Jackson arrives on Broadway.
  • The Play That Goes Wrong A celebration of the best of live theater… and the worst.
  • Wicked Meet the witches of Oz before Dorothy dropped in. Discounted tix

Recommended for ages 10+:

  • Beetlejuice BEETLEJUICE… BEETLEJUICE… BEEEE… very excited, because the third time’s the charm!
  • Hamilton A fresh look at the era of the Founding Fathers.
  • Just in Time Jonathan Groff stars as the legendary Bobby Darin in this immersive Broadway musical.
  • SIX: The Musical A pop concert spectacle featuring the six ex-wives of Henry VIII.
  • The Great Gatsby The roaring '20s take the stage in the musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's timeless novel.

Recommended for ages 11+:

  • The Outsiders The Tony Award®-winning Best Musical based on S.E. Hinton's classic novel and Francis Ford Coppola's motion picture.
Recommended for ages 12+:
Recommended for ages 13+:
MORE VENUES

Queens Theatres

Bronx Theatres

  • Lehman Center for the Performing Arts (Kingsbridge Heights)
    Consider a schlep to the Bronx for a wide range of captivating afternoon cultural performances coming up at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts. Not far from the Bronx Zoo and NY Botanical Gardens, you could easily turn a performance into a full-day adventure.

Staten Island Theatres

New Jersey Theatres

Have a performance to add to the list? Email us at MacKidBrooklynNW@MacaroniKid.com.






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    Meet Your Publisher

    Meredith Kurnov

    Meredith

    I am a local mom with two busy and active kids. I have loved and lived in Brooklyn for 17 years; from riverfront parks to crave-worthy restaurants, fun events, and our amazing "village" – who’s got it better than us?! I am thrilled to share a roundup of the best local events, activities, & businesses with you in one easy-to-use website and weekly email.

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