LA FAMIGLIA DIMITRI @ THE NEW VICTORY THEATRE: THROUGH 4/19/9

So your kids want to go to the circus. The big circus, the real circus, the one being advertised all over the subway with clowns and tigers and such. Fair enough. But unlike your 7 year-old, you read that Times article from a few years back about how man's encroachment on their feeding grounds is driving elephants to what can only be described as belligerent, violent behavior against people, rhinos, and other elephants. Makes you wonder how they'd respond to being chained, transported, and paraded in front of thousands of loud, smelly people with flash cameras every day. Hmmm.

Rather than subject your children to the inevitable (some would say overdue) elephant version of The Big Payback, why not take them to see La Famiglia Dimitri at the New Victory? A Swiss family of clowns, led by a father who had studied and apprenticed with Marcel Marceau, puts on a show that mixes traditional clowning with music and astounding acrobatics. They're huge in Europe, and if this clip is anything to go by, it looks like Cirque de Soleil without the Vegas flash. You and your kids will probably be a lot closer to the action than you would be at that other circus. And that action will not include 2,000 pound beasts pushed to their breaking points. So you should go.

La Famiglia Dimitri
Through 4/19/9
New Victory Theatre
209 West 42nd Street
646.223.3010
$12.50—$35.00