I’m biased. So what? Back to the Future (BTTF) is my favorite film, maybe for sentimental reasons, but it is pretty great cinema. And, even though I’m not really a fan of plays (contrary to this being my second theater review!), I went to Back to the Future: The Musical. Oh, and I also really don’t like musicals.
But Back to the Future: The Musical was incredible. The play held to the heart of the movie. The lines and moments you waited for were all there. The actors were great, the songs moved the plot forward, and the technical effects were amazing (more in a minute).
There were a few changes from the film, but every one of them was justifiable. Here are some (mostly spoiler-free) examples:
-Doc is not killed by Libyan terrorists. Clearly, after 9/11, the current Israel-Hamas war and resulting Middle East crisis, Westerners using a North African country as “bad guys” doesn’t sit well. The playwrights created an equal (if not better?) cause of his untimely death.
-Jennifer is played by a Black woman. The vast majority of American ’80s films have a shamefully small (if any) amount of Persons of Color (POC) roles (especially considering the available characters were “token,” or offensive caricatures, or signaling false narratives like post-ghetto transcendence. Casting Kiara Lee was a welcome correction, and it was intentional: Lee did an excellent job, and her understudies, Ina Black and Zoe Brooke Reed, are both POC. (BTTF does deserve credit for Goldie Wilson’s story arc.)
-The play is sillier than the movie. Both Don Stephenson (Doc Brown) and Mike Bindeman (George McFly) were over the top at times but, as my friend reminded me, in theater you play to the back of the house. There were also some meta moments and fourth wall breaks, but they were very funny. When singing through a 40-year-old time travel movie, some levity is necessary.
Most importantly (to me), I never felt the production took the easy way out because of technical limitations. And convincing an audience that a DeLorean is driving and flying in a stage performance would be a pretty good excuse in my opinion. But the production team wisely majored on practical effects while combining cutting edge digital effects (primarily projection) to achieve flawless fun.
We watched the final dates at the San Diego Civic Center, but you can visit BackToTheFutureMusical.com for more locations. It looks like the tour will be in Denver and San Francisco through the beginning of March, with plenty of other North American cities well into the summer.
I don’t get any money for this – I highly recommend seeing Back to the Future: The Musical!