Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
July 3, 1985 was a momentous day in cinema history — Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future premiered, became a monster hit, the most financially successful film of 1985, further cementing Michael J. Fox’s star status, and giving Christopher Lloyd another juicy character role to sink his teeth into. The film went on to earn four Golden Globe nominations and four Academy Award nomination, winning one for Sound Effects Editing. Two sequels and an animated series followed, and the films have become favorites for each new generation who sees them. But how on earth could a movie like this ever be turned into a live stage show with the centerpiece being a time traveling DeLorean that needs to reach a speed of 88 MPH to go back in time?
The film’s co-writer and producer had the idea for a Broadway show as far back as 2004, but development on the project didn’t begin until 2012. After workshops and behind-the-scenes creative differences that delayed the show’s planned opening for the film’s 30th anniversary, Back to the Future: The Musical finally opened in London’s West End in 2021, was an instant hit, and a Broadway production opened in 2023. Now the show is hitting the road — in addition to the West End and Broadway productions — to entertain audiences across North America.
If you’re not familiar with the film, the musical’s story differs a bit but retains the spirit of the film. 1985 teenager Marty McFly has a band that fails to get an audition, his father George is harassed by his boss Biff Tannen, his older brother Dave works at a burger joint, and mom Lorraine tries to discourage her daughter from dating. Marty gets a message from Doctor Emmett Brown to meet him at the Twin Pines Mall after midnight, and when Marty arrives Doc unveils his time machine made from a DeLorean. Unfortunately, due to poor protection while loading the machine’s fuel source, plutonium, Doc is afflicted by radiation poisoning and is dying. Marty takes the car to seek medical help, but when he hits 88 MPH he finds himself back in time to 1955 on the day Doc conceptualized time travel. There Marty accidentally bumps into teen-aged George McFly, and ends up in young Lorraine’s bed after George falls out of a tree and onto Marty. Marty is horrified when Lorraine begins to fall for him, and equally disturbed when he sees George was bullied by Biff even back then. He locates Doc and has to convince the man he is from the future — which he does — and looking at a photo of Marty and his siblings, the pair watch as Dave slowly begins to fade out of the picture. Marty’s presence and Lorraine’s attraction to him may jeopardize her meeting and falling in love with George. As his sister also fades away, Marty has to fix things quickly, get George and Lorraine to have their first kiss, and get back to the future before he also ceases to exist. But all that is easier said than done.
Back to the Future: The Musical sticks pretty close to the film’s storyline but there are a few changes, notably the fate of Doc Brown. In the film he’s gunned down by some Libyans he stole the plutonium from instead of poisoned by the radiation, but that is probably a bit more of a ‘family-friendly’ source of drama than an attempted murder. Lorraine seems to have beat her alcoholism as well. The changes are really minor though and should not be enough to disappoint fans of the movie.
Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
As Doc Brown, Don Stephenson turns out a pretty good variation of Christopher Lloyd’s performance while making it his own with his own bits of funny business. But the show’s book retains all of Doc’s well-known and quotable bits of dialogue so the character is still familiar even though the actor is not. Stephenson gets to do some really fun and cool things during the show’s climactic moments as well thanks to some amazing production design. Matching Stephenson’s performance is newcomer Caden Brauch as Marty, making his national tour debut. Brauch really embodies the character of Marty, honoring the film performance of Michael J. Fox but never trying to imitate him. He sings well, he’s got great comedy timing, he handles the action and doesn’t panic when things go wrong (a piece of a prop fell to the floor during our performance and both he and Stephenson ad-libbed wonderfully). This is some real star power on that stage.
Burke Swanson is also wonderful as George, giving us a lot of Crispin Glover with a dash of Richard Crenna from Our Miss Brooks in his performance. He is obviously having a great time with some of the goofiness he gets to do and he also seems to enjoy trying to make Brauch break character. Zan Berube is delightful as Lorraine, managing to make her attraction to Marty humorous without the ick factor. She also has a fabulous voice, perhaps the best of the cast, and she just lights up the stage any time she’s on. Ethan Rogers really embodies the character of Biff right down to the look that can’t help but recall Thomas F. Wilson’s film performance. Rogers plays the bully to perfection and rightfully deserves all of his comeuppances. Cartreze Tucker quickly becomes an audience favorite as Goldie Wilson with his high energy performance. The secondary characters and ensemble all do excellent work as well, and director John Rando keeps things moving at a brisk pace, even though some character moments are a bit too over-the-top. The songs by Glen Ballard are fine and serve the story well, but the most memorable will be the classic Huey Lewis tunes from the movie.
Aside from the terrific performances, the real draw of the show is the DeLorean and the stage magic used to bring it ‘to life’. There really is a lot of magic happening on that stage, which includes a turntable and a large video screen that are employed to change scenes and bring movement to the sets. But the car itself is as magical as Aladdin‘s flying carpet the way it moves and turns and rotates on that stage with the video backgrounds by Finn Ross, lighting design by Tim Lutkin and Hugh Vanstone, sound design by Gareth Owen and illusion design by Chris Fisher all adding to the illusion of movement. The car appears and disappears in the blink of an eye and even defies gravity at one point. All of this real ‘Broadway magic’ coupled with the wonderful performances make Back to the Future: The Musical well worth seeing. Film-to-stage adaptations often disappoint as changes are made to translate things on film to the stage in a logical manner, but even with the minor tweaks — including some modern references made possible by time travel — there is nothing in the show that will offend the die-hard fans of the movie. So put on your best puffer vest and head to the Kennedy Center, or your local theatre where the show will be playing, for a night of pure escapist entertainment.
Back to the Future: The Musical runs about 2 hours 30 minutes with one intermission. Suitable for age 6 and up.
Back to the Future: The Musical runs through August 11 at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center. Other cities on the tour include Chicago, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Dallas, Durham, Knoxville, Hartford, Providence, Buffalo, Boston and more. Visit the official website for more information. Use our Ticketmaster link to purchase tickets.
Back To The Future
The Kennedy Center
Check our Ticketmaster link for ticket availability.
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