Playhouse Square has lined up four family-friendly productions for its 2026-27 Children's Theater Series, all staged at the historic Mimi Ohio Theatre and aimed at kids age 10 and younger. The lineup kicks off in October with a glow-in-the-dark puppet retelling of a beloved fairy tale and runs through the following spring, wrapping a season built around themes of empathy, friendship and environmental awareness.
The series opens October 17-18 with Lightwire Theater's “The Ugly Duckling,” a nonverbal production that uses puppetry, electroluminescent lighting, music and dance to tell the classic story, according to Cleveland.com. Lightwire Theater was founded in 2012 by former Broadway dancers Ian Carney and Corbin Popp, who build their oversized puppets from household materials, aluminum rods and battery-powered el wire to perform entirely in darkness, per Lightwire Theater. The New Orleans-based troupe first drew national attention as a semifinalist on NBC's “America's Got Talent” and as the winner of TruTV's “Fake Off.”
Next up, October 31-November 1, is “Clifford The Big Red Dog: The Musical,” a comedic adventure about friendship starring the giant title dog. The 60-minute production comes from TheaterWorksUSA, with original music and lyrics by Sam Tsui and Casey Breves and a book by Matt Hoverman, according to TheaterWorksUSA. Founded in 1961, the company has presented family theater to more than 100 million audience members across North America.
A Crab's Deep-Sea Journey and a Lesson in Kindness
“Ocean Blue” arrives January 30-31, 2027, following Charlie, a young crab who must learn to survive after getting lost in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, per the Cleveland.com report. The Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia production uses blacklight puppetry, digital projection and original music to teach children about marine conservation, and the story is set in “The Gully,” a real deep-sea marine protected canyon in the Atlantic, according to Shaw Entertainment Group.
The series closes March 6-7, 2027, with “The Invisible Boy,” based on Trudy Ludwig and Patrice Barton's book, following a quiet boy who feels left out until a new classmate helps unlock his full potential. The stage adaptation was originally commissioned and premiered in 2019 by Children's Theatre of Charlotte as part of “The Kindness Project,” an initiative built to produce original plays that encourage empathy and inclusion, according to Children's Theatre of Charlotte. Playwright Christopher Parks and composer Josh Totora adapted the 2013 book to explore how small acts of kindness combat childhood exclusion.
A New Health Partner and a Historic Stage
All four shows will be presented by Akron Children's, which Playhouse Square named the official presenting sponsor of the Children's Theater Series in April, according to Playhouse Square. Akron Children's is the only independent pediatric healthcare system in Northeast Ohio, operating two hospital campuses and more than 50 regional care centers. Daniel Hahn said the series is a perfect introduction to live theater that sparks imagination, inspires conversation and creates lasting family memories, per Cleveland.com's account of the lineup announcement.
Every performance takes place in the Mimi Ohio Theatre, a 1,000-seat venue that originally opened on February 14, 1921, with 1,338 seats. It became the first of Playhouse Square's historic theaters to be restored and reopened, following a $4 million renovation in 1982, according to Cinema Treasures. The building survived a 1964 lobby fire so severe that its auditorium was painted red to hide the smoke damage, before grassroots advocates saved the complex from demolition. The theater has also drawn recent civic attention: Cuyahoga County moved its State of the County address there earlier this month.
Affordable Tickets and a Wider Educational Mission
Individual public tickets for the series are priced at $17 per person and are available at playhousesquare.org, while school group matinees run $7 to $12 per student — a fraction of the $185 to $810 price range for subscriptions to Playhouse Square's KeyBank Broadway Series. Playhouse Square also pairs the children's shows with free, curriculum-aligned Teacher Resource Guides for educators.
That affordability reflects a broader mission. Playhouse Square's community engagement and education department, established in 1998, reaches roughly 120,000 students and families across 26 Northeast Ohio counties each year through school field trips, matinees, sensory-friendly shows and workshops, according to FreshWater Cleveland. The department also offers $7 discounted matinee tickets for school groups along with bus transportation subsidies to help schools that might otherwise skip a field trip.
The series is just one piece of a sprawling operation. Playhouse Square is the largest performing arts center in the country outside of New York City, drawing more than 1 million guests to over 1,000 events annually across its 11 performance spaces, and it holds the largest Broadway season-ticket subscriber base in North America — a scale that recently helped Cleveland land national tour launches like “Death Becomes Her” this fall. The nonprofit generates 90 percent of its operating budget through real estate services and operations, compared with a 74 percent industry average, and the district is also home to eight resident arts companies including Great Lakes Theater, Cleveland Play House and Cleveland Ballet. For more information on the Children's Theater Series, Playhouse Square can be reached by phone at 216-241-6000.
