'Back to the Future: The Musical': The Review
'Back to the Future: The Musical': The Review
The timeless movie classic goes from screen to stage
DES MOINES — They built a musical … out of a DeLorean?
Yes, and it’s done exceptionally well. The North American tour of “Back to the Future: The Musical” is at the Des Moines Civic Center for a six-day run, and I went to a packed opening night Tuesday.
I take a back seat to few in my Back to the Future fandom, so there’s no way this can be an unbiased or professional review. (After all, this is my second piece of the year connected to the movie.) However, even though the musical is over four years old — debuting in England, then coming to Broadway last year — I intentionally went into it having learned minimal detail about the adaptation. Spoiler: Marty McFly, a teenager from 1985 who travels 30 years into the past and throws his family’s timeline off kilter, does get back to the future.
Yes, the car. Of course, the car. A slightly scaled model DeLorean has what set designer Tim Hatley told NPR was “a mechanical, steel, aluminum madness of gizmos and electronics and what we call turtles to make it spin.” Video, lights, and the turntable in the floor create the illusion of movement. At times it pops on stage as if it came out of nowhere (or no-when). It’s only one part of the stellar set and production design.
Bob Gale, who created the original story along with Robert Zemeckis, wrote the script or “book” for the musical. That means the characters, emotions, and overall tone are in excellent hands. If you’ve seen the movie a few times, you’ll catch when dialogue is lifted from the movie or moved to a different location. If you are both a movie dork and a music dork, you’ll catch the correction to a line at the dance. Other Easter eggs and sly references are too tasty to mention.
All of the songs but four — two at the dance, and two from Huey Lewis and the News original to the movie — are new for the musical. Each main character gets at least one song, and Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer joins in one during the second act despite a 30-year separation. Music and lyrics are by Alan Silvestri, the original composer, and six-time Grammy winner Glen Ballard. My immediate reaction for favorites are “It’s Only a Matter of Time” and “Something About That Boy,” but “For the Dreamers” is no sleeper, especially as it adds the optimistic sparkle so many musicals have.
Enough time has passed since the original movie that a production now is a double period piece. An opening animation helps this along, taking us from the site of the performance to Hill Valley, California. First, we have to be introduced to the world of 1985. Later on we get an exaggerated welcome to 1955, with its scientific wonders of asbestos and DDT and filtered cigarettes. (Or maybe it’s not so exaggerated.)
Caden Brauch as Marty and Zan Berube as Lorraine are both delights. They inhabit the characters from the movies without being constrained to them. The physical comedy in Lorraine’s bedroom as a pantsless Marty tries to avoid Lorraine shows just some of the ways to dance with a quilt. Berube especially throws herself into the part, and occasionally throws herself at Brauch.
Don Stephenson as Doc felt a bit over-the-top, which is saying a lot about a character originally portrayed by Christopher Lloyd, but on the other hand, this IS a musical. He does an admirable job of conveying the inspiration, dedication, and perspiration of Hill Valley’s resident scientist.
Burke Swanson is George McFly, and his interactions with Marty as the latter tries to teach him to stand up for himself are touching. Cartreze Tucker covers diner worker-later-mayor Goldie Wilson, whose role is expanded from the movie.
For opening night in Des Moines, Jennifer was portrayed by an understudy — perhaps fittingly, because during film development, the character was recast after Michael J. Fox took the Marty role and then was recast again for the sequels. Zoe Brooke Reed handled it with aplomb.
The biggest criticism I have is that sometimes it felt like the actors were speeding through the dialogue to get to the musical numbers.
There are concessions to the reality of the stage, most notably in Doc and Marty’s interactions with the time machine. But the change adds another dimension to the car, which like in the movies is itself is an important “character.” Overall, the stage crew handled everything smoothly, especially the (ahem) uplifting ending. Backgrounds including the iconic clock tower are done with video.
There is a full embrace of the Broadway musical format, because you can’t not have a dance number or six, and there’s a fourth-wall nod to that as well. The choreography is excellent, especially during the “chase scene” at the school.
There’s a lot of action with stage lighting in the climax, as one would expect, and it got intense. The musical also contains the necessary-to-the-plot damns, one fart joke, and of course the whole “his mom has the hots for him?” thing that made Disney reject the movie out of hand in 1984. Oops.
The end result is a musical that honors the source material while being its own thing. I thoroughly enjoyed “Back to the Future: The Musical,” and you will too — if you read this while there’s still time.
My other work can be found on my website, Iowa Highway Ends, and its blog.
I am proud to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. If you’re interested in commentary by some of Iowa’s best writers, please follow your choice of Collaborative members: