Best Off Broadway shows for kids and families

Conrad Ricamora, Tammy Blanchard and Christian Borle star in the latest revival of this tuneful and winsome 1982 musical about a carnivorous plant who makes dreams come true for a lowly flower-shop worker. Composer Alan Menken and librettist Howard Ashman wrap a sordid tale of capitalist temptation and moral decay in layers of sweetness, humor, wit and camp. It's sometimes dark, but older kids will eat it up. Ages 10 and up.

Director and puppet master Jonathan Rockefeller, who has previously created the successful children's-theater opuses The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show and Paddington Gets in a Jam, turns his attention to the Walt Disney featurettes adapted from A.A. Milne's cherished Winnie-the-Pooh books. The show features life-size puppets of Hundred Acre Wood denizens Winnie, Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet and the rest, and includes songs by the Sherman Brothers (Mary Poppins) and Milne himself. Ages 3 and up. 

The Chicago collective Manual Cinema (Ada/Ava) combines live actors, puppets and filmic techniques to create virtuosic theater experiences. This show, adapted by Sarah Fornace and Drew Dir from two books by the beloved Mo Willems (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!), is the tale of an incompetent monster in search of someone he can manage to scare. Fornace also directs the show, which features original songs and sound design by Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter. Ages 4–7.

Three deadpan blue-skinned men with extraterrestrial imaginations carry this tourist fave, a show as smart as it is ridiculous. They drum on open tubs of paint, creating splashes of color; they consume Twinkies and Cap'n Crunch; they engulf the audience in a roiling sea of toilet paper. For sheer weird, exuberant fun, it's hard to top this long-running treat. Ages 5 and up.

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. 

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.

Bang! Bang! Bang! If your kid likes to make noise, Stomp might be right up their alley. This shrewd garbage heap of clog dancing, prop comedy and chest-thumping percussion spins out impressive variations on vaudeville by way of English punk. Ages 5 and up.