In 'Illinoise,' Broadway fans find a show that feels like it 'was written about me'

NEW YORK ― If theatergoing was an Olympic sport, then Matthew Dodson would be Michael Phelps.

This year alone, the Manhattanite has already attended 160 performances on and off Broadway. In the past, thanks to rush and lottery ticket options, as well as last-minute deals on SeatGeek, he’s racked up head-spinning numbers for shows like “Company” (50 times), “Shucked” (60 times) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (100-plus visits).

“I love being a cheerleader,” says Dodson, 46, a cybersecurity systems engineer. “One of the amazing things about live theater is that you’re never going to see the same thing twice. It’s different every single night.”

This summer, Dodson has pledged his allegiance to “Illinoise,” a 90-minute, dialogue-free dance musical adapted from Sufjan Stevens’ beloved 2005 album. He has seen the show 38 times so far with his husband, Dan, and they plan to make more visits before it closes Aug. 10 at the St. James Theatre.

The stunning new musical, which won best choreography at last month’s Tony Awards, has attracted a small but mighty following of repeat patrons ever since it opened on Broadway in late April. The story follows a young queer man named Henry (Ricky Ubeda) as he learns to move forward from unrequited love and immeasurable loss. Like the show’s lead characters, Dodson lost a close friend to bone cancer when he was in his early 20s. And he’s touched by the musical’s portrayal of a gay relationship that is “incredibly beautiful and loving, without stereotype or pretense.”

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“In many ways, it feels like the show was written about me,” Dodson says. “I think a lot of people come away with that feeling because it's so personal and intimate.”

'Illinoise' musical 'reminds me why I love to dance'

Ask any “Illinoise” fan when the waterworks start, and you’ll probably get a different answer. For Em Gardiner, a restaurant hostess from Chicago, it’s “John Wayne Gacy Jr.,” a haunting ballet about inner demons and fears. And for Amanda Bohlmann, a dancer living in Westchester County, New York, it’s “Casimir Pulaski Day,” which captures the painful rhythms and repetition of chemotherapy.

Having now seen the show five times, “I know the moments when I’m about to start sobbing my eyes out, or when there’s a break in the middle where I can breathe for a second and not be crying,” Bohlmann says with a laugh.

“Casimir” is typically the song “when the dam gets broken,” Ubeda recalls. “I walk out right after that number ends and I can hear the sniffles. From there, some people weep the entire time. But by the end of the show, it’s a little more of a hopeful or cathartic cry.”

“Illinoise” is directed and choreographed by Justin Peck (“West Side Story”), with a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Jackie Sibblies Drury (“Fairview”). They found inspiration in other dance-driven musicals such as “Movin’ Out” and “Contact,” as well as in “A Chorus Line,” with multiple characters assembled in one place and sharing their unique stories. The project is deeply meaningful to Peck, who lost his mother to cancer when he was very young. But the approach was never to spoon-feed the audience or be too literal.

“We wanted to present this mirror to the audience, giving them the space to see what they want to see in it,” Peck says. “The No. 1 thing people say to me is that they sobbed through it, and I think that’s because it lives in the language of dance, which is so visceral. If these characters were speaking or trying to explain how they were feeling, I don’t think it’d have the same effect.”

The show’s breathtaking marriage of movement and storytelling is precisely why “Illinoise” resonates so strongly with Bohlmann, 29.

“I feel like dancers are so underappreciated when it comes to certain Broadway things,” she says. “It’s always about the stars and their big voices, which is amazing. But to have a show that's centered solely on dancing, it just reminds me why I love to dance. Every time I’m there, I’m like, ‘This is why I do it.’”

'Illinoise' has 'the mark of something really special'

For Stevens’ fans, the show presents a rare opportunity to experience his music live. The Oscar- and Grammy-nominated singer hasn’t toured the U.S. in nearly a decade. He announced last fall that he is relearning to walk, after the autoimmune disease Guillain-Barre Syndrome left him immobile.

“This is honestly the closest I’m ever going to get to see Sufjan’s music portrayed in a live sense, just because of everything that man has been through,” says Gardiner, 20, who uses she/they pronouns and is pursuing a career in event management. She saw “Illinoise” five times during its pre-Broadway run in Chicago last year, and flew to New York to see it twice more this summer. As a queer individual who grew up in Utah, they could also relate to Henry moving to a big city and finding community.

“I saw myself in that aspect of getting out of a place, finally getting to experience life on your own and discovering yourself through that,” Gardiner adds. “That really hit close to home.”

Ubeda says he receives a lot of messages on Instagram, often “from queer kids who feel seen by the show and come back multiple times. To me, that’s the mark of something really special, especially in theater. It reminds me of something like ‘Rent’ that speaks to a generation and a subset of people who maybe feel like theater hasn’t landed on them before.”

The “So You Think You Can Dance” winner has always been drawn to coming-of-age stories. But “it becomes even more special when it’s about the queer experience,” Ubeda says. With each performance of "Illinoise," “I feel like I’m stepping into my younger self’s shoes. I’m able to learn and give my younger self something different every night through this character.

"I didn’t know what it was going to be when I signed on, and it ended up being more fruitful and healing than I ever imagined.”