The Theatre Development Fund, a nonprofit organization that provides access to live theater, said Wednesday it bought all the tickets for the matinee on April 27 at the Foxwoods Theatre and will offer them at a discount for children and adults on the autism spectrum. Tickets range in price from $35-$80.

The Spider-Man musical will be the fifth show in the fund's autism-friendly program. The first was Disney's "The Lion King" in October 2011, followed last year with performances of "Mary Poppins," a second performance of "The Lion King" and one of "Elf: The Musical." Each time, the shows got enthusiastic feedback from grateful families.

Lisa Carling, the Fund's director of accessibility programs, said surveys taken after previous autism-friendly performances showed strong interest for one of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark."

"We're grateful to the show's producers, management and creative staff and crew for accommodating the Autism Theatre Initiative and uniting with us to make the show an unforgettable experience for all," she said in a statement.

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It is the largest study to date of such extraordinary cases.

Research has shown that between 1 and 20 percent of children diagnosed with autism no longer exhibit many of the disorder's signature symptoms after a few years, often resulting in a reversal of the diagnosis. It was long assumed that these were examples of misdiagnosis, but the new study suggests that might not be the case.

As reported by the New York Times:

“This is the first solid science to address this question of possible recovery, and I think it has big implications,” said Sally Ozonoff of the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the research. “I know many of us as would rather have had our tooth pulled than use the word ‘recover,’ it was so unscientific. Now we can use it, though I think we need to stress that it’s rare.”

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