This show just didn’t work on many levels.  The story, such as it was, was simply a therapeutic adventure, to create a prom for a group project of autistic adults – – in the hope that they would learn social skills and be able to have a big win. That was it. But that was not going to be enough to sustain the audience for over two hours. It was a show in which I could not get connected to any of the characters. I really didn’t care for – – nor feel for any of their struggles. Therefore, at the end of the musical, when many of them had a win – I didn’t feel joy in their successes. They all seemed so flat and one dimensional.  

As to the singing – I am no voice coach, but there were several times that the singing seemed so off that I cringed. I don’t know how to correct the singing, but I sure know that it was off pitch in many places. Also, each song was a ballad and each ballad just sounded the same as the last one.  This was also a musical that no one left humming a tune in their head.  I cannot imagine a cast album of this show ever doing well.  There was no standout song.

There was almost no dance to the piece, and if there was, it seemed so amateur that I don’t know what was gained by even having it in the first place.  I have seen many high school productions that have attempted and succeeded with much more sophisticated choreography.

The set for the show also seemed very cheap, especially for Broadway standards. They simply used a lot of plastic chairs and revolve on the stage that kept spinning round and round.

No other elements were really used.

It sounds like I am being very negative about a play that came about with such heart and earnestness – but I applied the same yardstick I would use with any other Broadway musical- – nothing more, nothing less.