‘How to Dance in Ohio’ Broadway Review: Or, How a Therapist Trips Over His Own Patients

Autism comes to the big boards in a muddled new musical

Liam Pearce and cast of "How to Dance in Ohio" (Credit: Curtis Brown)
Liam Pearce and cast of "How to Dance in Ohio" (Credit: Curtis Brown)

Giving a bad review to a show about autistic young people is a little like panning your niece’s piano recital at her birthday party. Since I don’t have any nieces, or nephews, here goes:

What I learned about autistic young people from seeing the new Broadway musical “How to Dance in Ohio” is that they are pretty much like other teenagers. In the show, which opened Sunday at the Belasco Theatre, one neurodiverse character refuses to eat her hamburger because it’s got pickles. One boy gets flustered asking a potential date to the upcoming big dance. Another teenager, whose mother must be Carrie Bradshaw, can’t decide which outfit to wear from their voluminous closet.

Comments

One response to “‘How to Dance in Ohio’ Broadway Review: Or, How a Therapist Trips Over His Own Patients”

  1. Kyle Avatar
    Kyle

    Honestly this whole review is pretty able-ist… which happens to be exactly what this show is fighting against. Real nice to compare autistic young adults to children in the first line. Maybe you could have learned something from your “favorite theatre stereotype regarding journalists.”

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