How to Dance in Ohio
Opening Night: December 10, 2023
Theater: Belasco Theatre
Website: howtodanceinohiomusical.com
Based on the Peabody Award-winning HBO documentary, How to Dance in Ohio is a heart-filled new musical exploring the need to connect and the courage it takes to step out into the world. At a group counseling center in Columbus, Ohio, seven autistic young adults prepare for a spring formal dance—a rite of passage that breaks open their routines and sets off hilarious and heartbreaking encounters.
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December 10, 2023
With all that groundbreaking, perhaps it is no surprise that the production is otherwise very conventional, sometimes dispiritingly so.
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December 11, 2023
Music should deepen this inquisition; characters can now sing through the difficult interactions that, in the documentary, they struggle to speak through. But the mundanity of Yandura’s indistinguishable score rarely coincides with the emotional ebbs and flows of Melocik’s lyrics. You never get the sense that this needs to be a musical at all.
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December 10, 2023
Directed with sensitivity by Sammi Cannold, How to Dance in Ohio is an underdog itself: a modest production of an original musical that originated in Syracuse, New York, and—like another sincerely inspirational audience-pleaser, Come From Away—rose on its own merits, without big stars, hit songs or well-known pop-culture IP.
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December 10, 2023
The meaningful, welcome impact of How to Dance in Ohio is the twinned jolt of emotion and insight into a world you may not—if you are not autistic—have had much notion of. It’s that wonderful jolt you get when you hear or see or understand a new story, or a set of new perspectives.
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December 10, 2023
When they slip into their characters seconds later, their charming performances seal the deal: We want this show to soar. That it doesn’t is a disappointment softened only by the experience of seeing a group of Broadway newcomers get so thrillingly close to something like flight, and suspecting that this won’t be the last time they’ll have the opportunity.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 10, 2023
How to Dance in Ohio — which features sparse staging and hardly any costume changes until the big dance itself — often misses by trying to cover too much ground from too many different angles and perspectives. And the music as a whole is only okay. But the moments that do hit — when we see these young adults confronting trepidation and unfamiliarity, and just generally celebrating life — hit hard, and will resonate with both the neurotypical and neurodivergent alike.
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December 10, 2023
But as groundbreaking as “How To Dance” is as an idea, its execution across the board does not match its admirable intentions.
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December 10, 2023
It’s a commendable achievement, though I wish the rest of the show was similarly strong. How to Dance in Ohio is hurt by a generic, bland score by Jacob Yandura, with otherwise forgettable lyrics from Yandura and Rebekah Greer Melocik. Many of the songs are reminiscent of other contemporary pop-inflected musicals like Heathers, Dear Evan Hansen, Be More Chill, Billy Elliot, Kimberly Akimbo, and The Prom.
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December 10, 2023
It’s a big-hearted, earnest musical performed by an eager, confident and appealing cast, playing characters—some more richly drawn than others—who find safety in routines, rules and control but also recognize the need to break free.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 10, 2023
How to Dance in Ohio wobbles in similar fashion. But in the end, this worthwhile musical finds the steps to an upbeat last dance.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 10, 2023
All that said, “How to Dance in Ohio,” which features a book and lyrics by Rebekah Greer Melocik and music by Jacob Yandura, doesn’t always live up to its own aims. In particular, it tends to moralize and preach, to tell rather than show, when its real abilityto improve the world is in its specifics.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 20, 2023
Her production of “Evita” (most recently seen in Washington), a musical originally directed by Prince, has earned plaudits, and here she makes a confident Broadway debut, marshaling a superb cast including autistic actors playing the seven primary characters.
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