Review: BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL at Hollywood Pantages

Now how exactly does one go about turning a successful, near-perfect movie into a stage musical? Is there some sort of formula for roping in both fans of the movie and stage hounds, to catch lightning in a New Medium a la, say THE PRODUCERS, THE LION KING, or MARY POPPINS to name but a few.

Those are the $37 million questions that producers aiming for the next screen-to-stage smash have been trying to wrestle into submission for decades. The query should well be top of mind to anyone taking in BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL, which parked, DeLorean and all, at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre for the L.A. leg of its national tour (followed by a run at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa in December).  The film, it could be argued, was a mold-breaker: a seamlessly constructed time-traveling action comedy; a cast led by Michael J. Fox, 24 years old and at the top of his game; a director who would go on to change the game with technical innovations, and on it goes. Not to over-slobber, but BTTF the movie is to many – quite justifiably – a classic. And a franchise-launcher with co-writer, producer Bob Gale overseeing the two sequels and subsequent TV and animation series.

But back to the question of making a classic into a classic musical? Judging by what the musical's book writer Gale, director John Rando and the musical team must have been thinking, the answer is you slavishly remake the movie on stage. Apart from adding some song (courtesy of Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard) and dance (arrangements by David Chase, choreography by Chris Bailey), you change as little as humanly possible.

This means that if you’re Gale, you transfer massive portions of the film script’s dialog and jokes, reproducing the plot practically down to the last gigawatt. On the production end, you employ actors who are made to physically resemble their screen counterparts and let them either mimic what Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson et al were doing and/or ratchet up the ham quotient up a couple of clicks.  

Then you bank on product recognition and massive amounts of good will. Nostalgia? Cinematic duplication? Oh, this product has it by the truck load. Heck, there are times you may even feel like you’re watching a movie thanks largely to the use of a marvelous all-purpose video wall designed by Finn Ross. Dream sequences, cheeky stair climbs, and certainly powering that DeLorean up to its time-hopping speed…all of it would be far cheesier (or utterly impossible) without Ross’s artistry.

The story? Zero surprises here. High school senior Marty McFly (Caden Brauch) has a  devoted girlfriend Jennifer (Kiara Lee) and looks to rock his high school’s talent competition. He’s the coolest member of his family, especially compared to his frumpy mom Lorraine (Zan Berube) and dweeby siblings Dave and Linda (Fisher Lane Stewart and Laura Sky Herman). Marty’s dad, George, (Burke Swanson) is cowed humiliatingly into submission by his bullying boss Biff Tannen (Ethan Rogers). Amidst all of this familial embarrassment, what’s a live wire like Marty to do?

Well, hang out with oddball inventor/mad scientist Dr Emmett Brown (Don Stephenson) for a start. Doc’s latest invention is, oh yes, a time machine built out of a DeLorean. Through a plot hitch involving dangeoros plutonium, Marty ends up piloting the car back to 1955 where he interferes with the meeting of his parents, potentially jeopardizing his own future existence. Reconnecting with Doc Brown in the past, he has to figure out a way correct or improve certain parts of the past and get his keister safely back to the future.

Since we’re doing a musical, amidst all of this, there is song and dance, often backed by a bevy of chorines. Very early on in one of these numbers, in a refreshingly throw-away line that would have had a place in the Rando-directed URINETOWN, Brauch’s Marty says “Doc, what’s with all these dancing girls?” to which Stephenson’s hoofing Brown replies, “I don’t know! They show up whenever I start singing!”

About those songs: they’re more serviceable than exciting. Silvestri and Ballard have cinematic and pop credit to burn, and there would be no JAGGED LITTLE PILL (album or musical) without Ballard, but apart from future Mayor Goldie Wilson (Cartreze Tucker) laying into “Gotta Start Somewhere” and, later Doc Brown’s ode to the power of science “This One’s for the Dreamers,” when music director Matt Doebler’s orchestra kicks in, we’re just marking time waiting for, yup again, “Johnny B Goode” and the Huey Lewis-sung favorites from the movie. Thankfully, we get them. And the composers have given that familiar riff from the film an accompanying lyric: “It’s on-ly a mat-ter of time.”

Trying to fill some very weighty shoes, Brauch carries the action with ample charisma. He’s got plenty of youthful energy and can dash across a stage or shred a guitar solo when called upon. With his Einstein-ian mop of hair and goofy breeziness, Stephenson’s Doc is a perpetual scene-stealer. But the production’s livest wire is unquestionably Swanson, an elastic human-chicken who turns George McFly into, well, into the hero he is meant to be (with future boy Marty’s help, natch). 

This being Hollywood, the production’s opening night featured post-curtain on stage appearances by much of FUTURE’S creative team as well as alumni from the movie (No Fox or Lloyd, alas). Gale emceed and Zemeckis took the stage. You can’t help but wonder what the mind who created ROGER RABBIT and FORREST GUMP and the motion capture wonders of THE POLAR EXPRESS might do with a live stage show. I guess that question is for the dreamers as well.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: The MUSICAL plays through Dec. 1 at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. It moves to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa from December 26 to January 5, 2025

Photo of Don Stephenson and Caden Brauch by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

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