Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt

Well, the groundhog saw his shadow last month and predicted that winter would last at least through half of March. There you have it! You and your children have more time to escape from the days of bitter cold to the warmth of New York’s children’s theaters. One snowy day, you can duck into the New Victory Theater — the theater for young audiences mainstay of Off-Broadway — to see a program of dance theater pieces, or check out a performance of dizzying acrobatics by a Canadian tightrope walker in the same theater. There are also adaptations of American classics, children’s books, and even magic shows for the intrepid young theatergoer.

New Victory’s Introdans, playing from March 4 to 13, is a rotating repertory of six dance pieces. It begins with a ballroom dance routine titled Black Cake involving a statuesque female dancer and her diminutive beau. Next, a group of fine feathered friends shake their brightly colored feathers to striking rhythms in Feast. Other winged creatures take the spotlight in Insekt. Up next in the animal kingdom are the mammals in Beast. There’s a dreamlike sequence of pajama-clad dancers called Jeu, and then a procession of powdered wigs paying tribute to Mozart in Sechs Tanze.

Three different events open on March 5, including a new musical about everyone’s favorite inquisitive monkey, a family-oriented improvisation show, and a birthday benefit for a New York-based theater for young audiences company. The esteemed Off Broadway playwright Jeremy Dobrish writes and directs a musical based on The Adventures of Curious George for Theatreworks/USA. Not to be confused with the television show by a similar name, Whose Move Is It Anyway is a dance improv event that might just involve a hippopotamus… if you’re lucky! Finally, Vital Children’s Theatre celebrates its Sixth Birthday Benefit with musical presentations from five of the company’s upcoming shows.

Does your son or daughter believe in magic? Do they believe in curling up with a good book? Give your kids a little extra nudge in both directions with a magician that stresses the importance of literacy in The Wizard’s Apprentice Magic Show. Playing for one day only (March 6) at the Auditorium at Equitable, the Wizard of Wisdom uses illusions and masks to illustrate the secrets of his craft — good reading skills. After this lesson, your little ones will be able to take on an American classic by Mark Twain. Theaterworks presents The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn at the same venue on March 12.

Young performers take the stage in March in two family shows. First, the Little Orchestra Society presents the Lolli-Pops Concert – Things That Go Bang (March 12 to 13 at Hunter College), stretching the limits of percussion with “pots, pans, and paws.” (Those Stomp performers were getting old, anyhow!) Next up, the political and avant-garde theater troupe, Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, rounds up all the tykes in The Cavalcade of Youth for a showcase of variety performers from March 13 to 27 at Theater for the New City.

It’s said that March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. What better way is there to celebrate the beginning of springtime than with a circus at the New Victory — complete with clowning, juggling, and high wire acrobatics. Daredevil performer Jaime Adkins visits New York from his troupe in Montreal with Typo (March 18 – April 3), a funnyman routine that nods to such legends as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. In between comic improvised interludes, he’ll race across the stage in a unicycle, juggle ping-pong balls with his lips, and brave a frightful and mysterious “swing of terror.” By the end, he might just put the spring in your child’s step.