Review of "Autism: The Musical," Scheduled to Premiere on HBO Next Week

I've rarely thought as much about a video as I have about Autism: The Musical. Based on others' reviews, I'd expected a fun, frothy musical comedy that skipped lightly over the issue of autism. Instead, the documentary is an extraordinarily true-to-life presentation of what it's like to be or to raise a child with autism in America today.

Director Tricia Regan chose to focus her film on the Miracle Project -- a program developed by Elaine Hall, which involves children with autism, their siblings and their parents in developing and presenting a musical. The musical, though, is more a vehicle than a focus for the film. In fact, you won't get to see most of the final production at all!

Autism: The Musical does a terrific job of presenting a group of kids who represent the entire breadth of the autism spectrum. You'll see these kids at their best and worst, and you'll almost certainly do some laughing and crying. Of course, no group of kids can represent every aspect of autism, but my guess is that most parents will find their child somewhere in this very broad-ranging group.

Most impressively, to me, the film actually captures the phenomenon that has become the autism culture. If you're like me, you'll recognize the overwhelming intensity with which some parents immerse themselves in autism -- to the exclusion of everything else life has to offer.

After watching the film, I found myself wanting to know what happened to those kids; what happened to the parents; and most particularly what happened to the Miracle Project. As an autism writer, I was interested in finding out whether the program could be replicated. To get my answers, I interviewed both Tricia Regan and Elaine Hall.

Find out more about Autism:The Musical and the Miracle Project in my full review. And do tune in (or set your Tivo to record) the film on HBO on Tuesday, March 25 (8:00-9:45 ET/PT).