The very beginning
Building momentum
The energy spinning
Moving with purpose and picking up speed
Has taught me the one lesson I’ll ever need
The first step to succeed
Is building momentum"
—>Drew
How to Dance in Ohio is a musical based on the 2015 documentary of the same name with music by Jacob Yandura and lyrics & a book by Rebekah Greer Melocik.
The story centers on a group of young adults who all attend an autism treatment program run by Dr. Emilio Amigo. As part of the program and to allow his patients to build up their social skills, Amigo decides to hold a Spring Formal dance for the group. The show follows the group as they navigate their lives in the buildup to the dance as well as the lives of their parents, Dr. Amigo, and his daughter Ashley who is helping out at the center as she recovers from a leg injury she sustained while studying dance at Julliard..
After premiering in Syracuse in September 2022, the show transferred to Broadway where it ran from November 2023 through February 2024. The show is noteworthy in that all of the actors playing the autistic characters are themselves on the autism spectrum. Legendary theatre producer Harold Prince helped develop the show, but following his death in 2019 Sammi Cannold took over as director.
Tropes Associated With This Show Include:
- Adaptation Expansion:
- The subplot involving Dr. Amigo and his daughter Ashley was invented for the show
- The movie centers primarily on Marideth, Jessica, and Caroline. Drew has a much more prominent role in the musical compared to his appearance in the documentary.
- Adaptational Jerkass: An interesting example - in the musical Caroline's boyfriend is described as being "kind of a jerk", something that isn't hinted at in the documentary. However, the Real Life Caroline confirmed
her boyfriend at the time indeed turned out to be a jerk. - All Musicals Are Adaptations: Based on a Peabody Award-winning documentary that aired on HBO in 2015.
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Approval of God: Several of the subjects of the documentary voiced their approval over how they were portrayed, including Dr. Amigo and Caroline among others. - Autism: The show centers on a group of young adults on the Autism spectrum.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Dr. Amigo becomes a target of this from both his patients and daughter.
- Character Development: As befitting a coming-of-age story, all of the characters grow up a little by the end of the show.
- Condescending Compassion: The article written by the blogger is filled with this.
- Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: As mentioned above, all of the autistic roles in the show were cast with autistic actors in the Syracuse and Broadway productions.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Dr. Amigo is attracted to one of the reporters covering the dance, and his attempts to flirt with her cause him to miss that another reporter is taking all of the wrong lessons from the dance.
- Dull Surprise: Discussed. Tommy talks about how one way his autism manifests itself is difficulty in making facial expressions, so he sometimes practices emoting in order to manage it.
- The Eleven O'Clock Number: "Building Momentum", the song Drew sings as he takes charge of setting up the Second Chance Dance.
- The Ghost: Caroline's boyfriend is mentioned in dialogue by several characters, but never seen on stage.
- Heel Realization: Dr. Amigo realizes he was centering his own attitudes and desires rather than allowing his patients (and daughter) to make their own life choices as they saw fit.
- Human-Interest Story: The dance is eventually covered by a blogger and local newspaper as this.
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Heavily deconstructed. The article written by the blogger paints the dance in this way, taking a condescending attitude towards the patients and treating them as childlike. This deeply insults them, leading them to avoid the dance entirely- or at least those who hadn’t already decided not to go.
- "Not So Different" Remark: After trying for most of the show to convince her to attend the dance, Marideth's father eventually admits that when he was her age he didn't like dances any more than she does, but doesn't regret attending them because that's where he met her mother. This is what convinces Marideth to go.
- Setting Update: The show doesn't state outright when it is set, but the technology and cultural language featured are much closer to 2022-2023 than the documentary's 2015 setting.
- Slice of Life: Most of the show follows the characters as they life their life preparing for the dance, with no major conflicts until the blogger posts his article.
- Twice Shy: Drew obviously has a crush on Merideth that she reciprocates, but both of them have issues expressing their feelings to each other. Part of Dr. Amigo's treatment plan building up to the dance is meant to build up social and communications skills in an attempt to avoid this trope.
- Visual Pun: During Caroline's song about her boyfriend, she mentions he "can be kind of possessive at times" at which time the other cast members (serving as background dancers) pull out red handkerchiefs and wave them around for the rest of the number.
