NEW YORK — Sixteen “revolting children” battle a tyrannical schoolteacher in “Matilda the Musical” while 10 orphans outwit Miss Hannigan in “Annie” (including swing actors and understudies). A kid in “Kinky Boots” tests out his first pair of red high heels; a few blocks away a young Michael Jackson struts across the stage in “Motown the Musical.”

“Newsies” and “The Lion King” pulse with the leaping energy of young stars. There is even a boy in a straight play, “The Assembled Parties,” who takes his role very seriously, even though he’s in only one scene.

“He comes up and says, ‘Any notes for me?’” said Lynne Meadow, the director.

With nine shows featuring child actors, Broadway stages are teeming with little ones right now, and the business of tending to them is booming — meaning tutors, casting agents, kids-only dressing rooms and minders (otherwise known as “wranglers”) who greet the youthful performers at the stage door, keeping backstage a no-parents zone.

“It does seem like a kid-heavy moment,” said Bernard Telsey, a longtime casting director. “Many more musicals not only have kids in smaller parts” but those young actors “are actually carrying shows.”

That doesn’t mean the city has been overrun by aggressive Momma Roses and their offspring desperate to entertain you. Directors say they have sought out just the opposite — smart, accomplished, often quirky kids and parents committed to keeping their children’s feet firmly planted on the ground.

“They are aware of the prominence they’re a part of,” said Matthew Warchus, the director of “Matilda,” adding, “It’s very easy to inflame that in somebody: publicists and the sort of grandiose, almost diva-like cars picking you up and taking you home, special tables at restaurants that can contribute to a fantasy. I’m all for cooling it down.”

Ask Daisy Eagan, who at 11 was the youngest girl ever to win a Tony, for “The Secret Garden,” only to have a breakdown and quit acting. She returned to the theater just two years ago with a cabaret show reflecting on the experience.

Opportunity with a cost

There is a heady glamour to performing on Broadway — staying up late, being surrounded by autograph seekers at the stage door — when your school friends are home doing the holiday pageant with crepe-paper props.

Yet the opportunity comes with costs. Some families have to relocate. Children still have to go to school in the morning even after commuting home from evening shows. (They’re tutored during the all-day rehearsal periods.) There’s often no time for the normal stuff of childhood, like birthday parties, sports teams and sleepovers.

Since parents are generally not allowed backstage, the chaperoning falls to wranglers like Thomas Bradfield, an aspiring actor who prefers working as a guardian at “Pippin” to his former job selling merchandise in the theater lobby of “Beauty and the Beast”; and Lisa Swift, of “Motown,” who also does tutoring and finds herself bereft when her charges move on.

“I really do become attached,” she said. “I’m with the boys more than I’m with anyone.”

One of the young Michael Jacksons in “Motown” already grew too tall and had to leave the cast. “Annie” periodically has a measuring day.

“They just grow,” said Telsey, whose agency looked at 5,000 audition videos and combed talent agencies nationwide to cast “Annie.”

Even if kids don’t get physically bigger, they grow up fast among professional adults, occupying an unusual netherworld between the razzle-dazzle of the Great White Way and the rough and tumble of regular childhood.

“People say, ‘What about a normal life?’” said Bridget Mills, who looks after the “Kinky Boots” actors. “But what about this once-in-a-lifetime experience?”

Here’s a look behind the curtain at the lives of nine young actors for whom this season has been both reality and fairy tale.

Uprooted

Don’t get him wrong; Raymond Luke is thrilled to have his 13-year-old son, Raymond Luke Jr., in “Motown the Musical.” He bursts with pride watching his son play a young Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder and hearing people roar when his son takes a bow. But he has also upended his life for this, leaving his wife and four other children — ages 12, 11, 9 and 18 months — back home in South Central Los Angeles.

His days are devoted to Raymond Jr., getting him to and from the $1,300-a-month apartment they’ve rented in the East New York section of Brooklyn on two subways; making sure he keeps up with his online curriculum; brewing green tea to preserve his son’s voice and buying him a $60 suit when he needed to look nice for the Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards this month.

“I want him to focus on the show,” Raymond Luke said. “I worry about the other stuff.”

New York City is a hard place not to spend money, but he has to save what he can. After taxes, Raymond Jr.’s $2,000-a-week salary barely covers their expenses, including rent (plus $345 a month in utilities); taking cabs home late from the theater; eating out on matinee days because there isn’t time to cook at home between shows; and plane fare so the rest of the family can come visit (the Lukes asked friends for donations at their going-away party).

“This is not a moneymaking proposition,” Raymond Luke said. “We’re struggling.”

He recently started working as an usher at “Motown” for additional income. Back home, his wife Nicole is a sales operation analyst for Belkin International, and his grandmother helps with child care. They see the show as an investment in their son’s future. Agents have come to see “Motown,” along with stars like Spike Lee and Diana Ross.

“The wildest applause erupted when Raymond Luke Jr., one of two performers who portray the boyish Jackson (along with the young Berry [Gordy] and the young Stevie Wonder), came bounding onstage,” said Charles Isherwood in his New York Times review, “exuding the self-confidence and charm of the preternaturally seasoned performer he’s playing.”

Raymond Jr. hopes his moments in the spotlight lead to a role on the Disney channel.

“I want to be a singer for the rest of my life,” he said.