Back to the Future: The Musical!

Great Scott! When I first heard they were turning Back to the Future into a musical, my heart sank a little. How were they going to put a speeding DeLorean on stage, and did it really need to be a musical?
Back to the Future has to be one of the greatest science fiction films of all time – although I do think the second is one of those rare sequels that is actually better than the original (just don’t get me started on the third one though!).

Translating a famous film to the stage comes with it two challenges. Firstly, how do you justify it being a stage piece, and how do you add to it to improve on the original and bring something different that can’t be achieved by just watching the film?

The show slightly stumbles at this first hurdle as we are essentially presented with the plot of the film with some minor alterations – wisely they excise the terrorists at the beginning but cleverly introduce another cause of jeopardy for Doc. So, Marty has to both ensure that his parents get together and also get back in time to save him.

The second challenge is for the actors. They need to retrofit themselves into existing performances so that they give the audience what they expect whilst bringing, hopefully, something extra above just impersonation.

When I saw this show over a year ago, Doc Brown was played by Broadway & TV actor Roger Bart and Marty McFly by Ollie Dobson – both excellent performances. So, I was interested to see how the current incumbents measure up. Corey English is Doc Brown who, whilst not looking like Christopher Lloyd, vocally nails it and has a fabulous twinkle and sense of comedy! Vasco Emauz, making his professional stage debut as Marty McFly, captures the innocence & charm that Michael J. Fox brought to the role.

There is able support from Orlando Gibb as George McFly who, whilst looking more like Bill Hader, captures the idiosyncrasies, laugh, and physical characteristics of his cinema counterpart.

But does it sing? In addition to the iconic songs from the film and, of course, Alan Silvestri’s fabulous score, we now have additional songs with music and lyrics by Silvestri and Glen Ballard. Unfortunately, none of the new songs really add up to much despite the hard work of the cast to sell them. I just sat there most of the time thinking, “Oh, they’re going to sing again,” which is never a good sign for a musical!

In my view, there are only two worthwhile songs in the show and they both belong to Doc Brown – his act 2 opener which is a great fun number about imagining the future, which doesn’t advance the plot one iota, and his song “Dreamers,” which is a lovely, wistful song giving a little bit of his backstory. Ultimately, I think this could have worked just as well as a play in the same way as Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

This is a show with high production values, but what on earth was happening with the wigs? Most of the men’s wigs looked like they had come from a joke shop and had not been glued down properly!

Where the show scores and soars is in the stagecraft and the effects. There is just one car in the show that performs all the amazing tricks, and interestingly it’s 80% the size of the actual car! They tried the full-sized version – too big. They tried the half-sized one – too small. What they are able to achieve with a combination of practical stage effects and state-of-the-art projection is quite incredible.

The last 20 minutes is absolutely thrilling as they crosscut between the DeLorean needing to hit 88 miles an hour with Doc Brown at the top of the clock tower trying to reconnect the cable – this happening in front of you makes for some thrilling theatre. This is then topped off with a finale when, like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, you will believe a car can fly!

Interestingly, this musical almost had a completely different outcome. Wunderkind director Jamie Lloyd was originally slated to direct. His vision tends to be with very stripped back minimalist productions in monochrome with heavy use of video – you only need to look at his productions of Sunset Boulevard and Romeo and Juliet to appreciate that.

His vision was ultimately at odds with the writers and creators and he was insistent that Biff didn’t sing and wanted to include the skateboard chase – which everyone had considered unsafe and unachievable. Ultimately, they amicably parted ways due to “artistic differences.”

Thankfully, the team found a safer pair of hands in John Rando who managed to achieve a balance between honouring the original film and delivering something exciting but achievable on stage.

In short, Back to the Future: The Musical, whilst far from being a great musical, delivers what the audience expects and in the last 20 minutes is really thrilling!

★★ as a musical with an additional ★★ for the car and stage effects!

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