Editors Note: After this story was published, How to Dance in Ohio announced it would close on Broadway on Feb. 11, 2024.
How to Dance in Ohio made its world premiere in Syracuse last year at Syracuse Stage. A year later it opened on Broadway.
A crash course on How to Dance in Ohio! 🪩 pic.twitter.com/iQNpxZ7xCd
— How To Dance In Ohio - The Musical (@ohiomusical) December 13, 2023
Before the show begins all seven autistic actors come out on stage and give the audience a primer on what they're about to see. There's music, there's dancing, of course, and all seven autistic characters are played by autistic actors.
"There’s this saying, 'If you’ve met one autistic person... you’ve met one autistic person,'" Conor Tague, who plays Tommy, says at the top of the show. ”You are now meeting seven autistic people."
The crowd erupts as Tague delivers that line. He said this is the representation Broadway has been waiting for.
"We get like a lot of love and support from all of our fans, especially those who are also actually autistic," Tague said. "It really makes them feel seen and heard. And just hearing their positive responses and their love really makes us feel great."
Broadway's Belasco Theatre is outfitted to be accommodating to all audiences. There are flyers in each Playbill showing a map of the theatre and pointing out cool-down spaces available for audiences.
You can check out a bag with fidget toys, headphones if the sound is too loud and glasses if the lights are too bright. A lighting effect helps create a disco ball moment designed to not have audience members get hit by beams of light unexpectedly. A scoreboard counting down the days to the dance no longer makes loud metal clanking sounds.
"Our show is inherently sensory-friendly," Autistic Creative Consultant Ava Xiao-Lin Rigelhaupt said. "Sensory-friendly performances make shows accessible to patrons with sensitivities to elements such as lights and sounds. And the show doesn't have any huge jarring booms or strobe lights. The show was made with accessibility at the forefront, not as an afterthought, or, as our show likes to say, 'It's not just about being invited to the party. It's being asked to dance.'"
Accessibility also goes backstage. Rigelhaupt said the team reached out to each member of the production to understand what access needs they had.
"We heard, 'Please don't wash the costumes in a detergent that has a scent,'" Rigelhaupt said. "Because a lot of people don't like scents, they're very sensitive to that. So accessibility is really built-in, even in the smallest things that aren't seen like how the costumes are washed."
Syracuse University Alum Ben Holtzman served as one of the lead producers on the project.
"Part of the reason why we brought the show to Syracuse Stage was because we knew that they were committed to accessibility in their theater and in their community," Holtzman said.
Syracuse Stage Artistic Director Bob Hupp said originally the theatre company only had sensory-friendly performances for their holiday shows. Those performances lower sounds, keep house lights on and are a shush-free zone so everyone can feel welcome. How to Dance in Ohio bolstered Syracuse Stage's focus on accessibility, not just on the audience experience but the needs of the actors.
"We had to really examine our assumptions and start to make sure that we were thoughtful," Hupp said. "Mindful that we listened to concerns and suggestions and we try to incorporate as many of those ideas as we could in our in our work. And so I'd say that How to Dance in Ohio really continued to focus and expand on an issue that was already on our minds and already part of what we were trying to do. It just became more prominent."
Now, sensory-friendly performances are available for every production at Syracuse Stage.
With How to Dance in Ohio now open on Broadway, Holtzman's producing work really begins by looking to the future of the show. Audience buying patterns have changed from buying months in advance to sometimes just the day of. And the show being an original work on Broadway, without being based on a Blockbuster movie or starring a Hollywood A-Lister, can make breaking through the noise and grabbing audience attention really challenging.
"The problem is just that the costs are so exorbitant that you sort of have a window of time to pick up a wind of success before you're gonna run out of money," Holtzman said. "So we're sort of in that moment now where we're just continuing to push out these great reviews, selling the joy, selling the family-friendly nature of our show."
Now it's about building momentum.
How to Dance in Ohio has an open run at the Belasco Theatre.
