Things to do with kids in NYC
Best upcoming events and festivals
This wacky one-wheeled weekend rolls into town and begins with a pitstop in Battery Park (10 am on Aug 29), followed by a ride over the Brooklyn Bridge and ending with a stage show at Coney Island (Aug 30, meet at 2pm in front of City Hall in Manhattan on the base of the Brooklyn Bridge). Don't miss the main event—a giant festival on Governors Island with races, competitions, exhibitions, unicycle sports (basketball, hockey and sumo on wheels!), music, live performances and more one-wheeled activities for the whole family (Aug 31 and Sept 1 from noon–5pm). Learn more about the lineup on the festival's website. All ages.
Thespians can experience the Great White Way in all its glory, without the hefty price tag. Broadway Week, which offers 2-for-1 tickets, is back from Sept 3–6, and some of your favorite shows for kids are participating in the deal. Visit nyc.go/broadway-week for a lineup and to purchase your tickets. Participating shows include: Aladdin (Ages 8 and up) Beetlejuice (Ages 12 and up) Come From Away (Ages 10 and up) Dear Evan Hansen (Ages 12 and up) Frozen (Ages 8 and up) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Ages 10 and up) The Lion King (Ages 8 and up) Mean Girls (Ages 10 and up) Wicked (Ages 12 and up)
We love a good spooky theme—and good thing, because this year’s Halloween Harvest Festival theme is Fet Gede, the Haitian Festival of the Ancestors! There will be a card readings, mini altars and a special dance and drum performance. Kids can also enjoy some hands-on fun with costume making, face painting and art projects. Dogs are invited to join in the fun with the annual canine costume contest. All ages.
It's Hug Time with Poppy and co...or is it?! In their first-ever live tour, the cheerful and colorful Trolls are tasked with an important mission: They must save Hug Time before it's too late. Naturally, the best way to do so is to bust out the dance moves, glitter and LOL moments. If your littles had a ball exploring the interactive DreamWorks Trolls The Experience, then they'll certainly love seeing their favorite characters on stage. Don't miss this exciting adventure, and of course, excellent hairdos. All ages.
Prepare for an afternoon like none other—you'll be among dinosaurs, after all. Paleontologists will feel as though they've stepped straight into a scene of the beloved Jurassic Park films thanks to this awesome family experience. The performance features over 20 life-sized animatronic dinos—some of which are 40 feet in length—a thrilling score and a captivating tale that'll engage everyone in the audience. All ages.
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Enter for two tickets to Food Network & Cooking Channel New York City Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One.
This musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz addresses surprisingly complex themes, such as standards of beauty, morality and, believe it or not, fighting fascism. Thanks to Winnie Holzman’s witty book and Stephen Schwartz’s pop-inflected score, Wicked soars. The current cast includes Jackie Burns as Elphaba and Amanda Jane Cooper as Glinda.
Give city kids a chance to explore lush landscapes on this 250-acre expanse
Theater review by Adam Feldman The world of Harry Potter has arrived on Broadway, Hogwarts and all, and it is a triumph of theatrical magic. Set two decades after the final chapters of J.K. Rowling’s world-shaking kid-lit heptalogy, the two-part epic Harry Potter and the Cursed Child combines grand storytelling with stagecraft on a scale heretofore unimagined. Richly elaborated by director John Tiffany, the show looks like a million bucks (or, in this case, a reported $68 million); the Lyric Theatre has been transfigured from top to bottom to immerse us in the narrative. It works: The experience is transporting. Jack Thorne’s play, based on a story he wrote with Rowling and Tiffany, extends the Potter narrative while remaining true to its core concerns. Love and friendship and kindness are its central values, but they don’t come easily: They are bound up in guilt, loneliness and fear. Harry (Jamie Parker) is weighted with trauma dating back to his childhood, which hinders his ability to communicate with his troubled middle son, Albus (Sam Clemmett); it doesn’t help that Albus’s only friend is the bookish outcast Scorpius Malfoy (the exceptional Anthony Boyle), son of Harry’s erstwhile enemy, Draco (Alex Price). Despite the best intentions of Harry’s solid wife, Ginny (Poppy Miller), and his friends Hermione (Noma Dumezweni) and Ron (Paul Thornley), things turn dark very fast. Set designer Christine Jones and lighting designer Neil Austin keep much of the stage shroude
Get in on a cool indoor hangout at Grand Central! This event transforms Vanderbilt Hall into a fun–filled dining area with live, family-friendly entertainment. Kiddos can make arts & crafts and get their faces painted courtesy of Kidding Around Toys, dance and sing along in the event's Jam to the Music perfomance courtesy of Brooklyn Children's Museum, watch performances from Grammy Award–winner Tim Kubart (Aug 24) and cast members of Wicked (Aug 25) and Something Rotten (Aug 26), too. There's also great food from the likes of Shake Shack and Zaro's Family Bakery available for purchase! Event located in Grand Central's Vanderbilt Hall. All ages.
