How to Dance in Ohio | 2hrs 25mins. One intermission. | Belasco Theatre | 111 W 44th St | 212-239-6200

Want to see an excellent Broadway musical about neurodivergent young adults who battle social anxiety to find romance? Too bad; Dear Evan Hansen closed last year. However, the producers of How to Dance in Ohio hope you’ll choose an alternative: this well-intentioned but scattershot adaptation of the HBO documentary about autistic people learning how to partner up and shake booty.

Translating nonfiction films into musicals has a checkered history. For every inspired Grey Gardens there’s a rattling jalopy like Hands on a Hardbody. How to Dance falls, I’m afraid, at the latter end of the range, taking the premise of the movie and adding diversity, contrived conflict, and razzle-dazzle with mixed results. It has trouble finding a single point of focus and balancing the needs of drama with a positive message of self-empowerment.

While the 2015 doc was weighted towards the hopes and fears of three women aged 16 to 22 preparing for a dance organized by their gung-ho therapist, book writer and lyricist Rebekah Greer Melocik expands roles for four others, including a pair of affable young men and two queer people of color. (Some characters are based on real Ohioans in the film.) In total, we have seven ND heroes to........

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