Review: BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL at The Paramount Theatre

Dear Readers, buckle up!  Not because we’re about to go 88 mph but because I’m about to be a musical theater snob.  The trend of turning popular (or even not so popular) movies into big splashy Broadway musicals is not a new one.  And when it works such as with the likes of “Legally Blonde”, “Waitress”, or “Some Like It Hot”, it can be glorious.  But for every one of those, you also get the likes of “Pretty Woman”, “Dirty Dancing”, or God forbid “Flashdance”.  Shows that were better left on the silver screen.  One such show is “Back to the Future: The Musical”, currently playing at the Paramount Theatre.  And even if they could have gotten the car running (we’ll get to that in a minute) the show is still a travesty.

With some minor tweaks for time (even though it’s still a 2 hour and 40 min show) it’s the same story from the 1985 movie.  Like almost exactly the same as the book writer, Bob Gale, was one of the co-writers on the movie and appears to have lifted that script nearly verbatim.  It’s 1985 and high schooler Marty McFly (Caden Brauch) is accidentally thrown back into the past by his friend, eccentric inventor Doc Brown’s (Don Stephenson) time machine that he’s made from a DeLorean.  Now Marty must get his 1955 parents (Burke Swanson and Zan Berube) to fall in love or he may never exist. 

So yes, the dialog is the same.  So much so that as familiar as I am with the movie, I was able to mouth many of the lines with them.  But this is a big, flashy musical, so what of the music?  Well, that’s written by the man who did the score for the movie, Alan Silvestri along with Glen Ballard, and I have to say it’s some of the least inspired, least memorable, and laziest writing I think I’ve seen (let’s keep making rhymes by repeating the same line over and over).  The songs do not in the least move the story along, in fact they pause the story to reiterate what has just been said by the book.  That is, when they’re not completely superfluous fluff that made me sit and wonder, “why did you need this?”  I’m looking at you, “21st Century” that started Act Two with a great big, “Huh?!” The only good songs in the show were ripped off from other artists and used the movie.  “Earth Angel” and “Johnny B. Goode” at the dance and Huey Lewis’ “The Power of Love” as a finale and “Back in Time” that is used as a coda to the show in a concert, let’s get the audience on their feet moment.

So why is this show popular, and still running on Broadway since 2023 (although it is about to close)?  There is, of course, that name recognition, the reason these movies are made into musicals to begin with. But it’s also a mega-spectacle with fancy projections and, yes, the DeLorean on stage.  This show is certainly an eye-popping one with tons of technical wizardry.  Maybe too much as, at the climactic moment of the show when (spoiler alert) they get the lightning to strike the car as it’s going 88 mph to send Marty back to his time, the effects failed, and they had to stop the show.  OK, that happens.  And after several minutes they started it up again … and then stopped it again with the same failure.  They did this stop and start five times, each time bringing in a projection that read “Please stand by while we adjust the space-time continuum” (a projection they just happened to have on hand?  How many times does this happen???!), and each time by saying “we will now restart the show with the audience’s applause” which seemed really thirsty.  All told, they added almost an hour to the run time.  For some.  Many people left.  Including me. 

OK, so the music is a disaster and the effects, while flashy, didn’t always work.  What of the performers?  Brauch is fine.  In fact, he’s better than fine with a great voice and moves and tons of stage presence.  He commands the stage and leads the show well.  But so many of the others, especially Stephenson and Swanson, are doing such campy, broad, overdone impressions of the characters in the movie, that the jokes were no longer funny, just embarrassing.  And how much do we need to pander to the audience?  Let’s make them cheer by having an opening projection showing the current date and the town we’re in (in case you forgot) or by having local references (Marty: “What are you looking at George?” George: “Hawks.  See?  Hawks.”  Get it?  Seahawks?). Again, super thirsty. 

When a show has to rely on gimmicks and technical wizardry and name recognition that much to distract from the fact that it’s a bad musical, it’s akin to dangling the keys in front of a toddler to distract them from the fact that their goldfish is dead.  And while many in the audience were sucked in by those dangling keys, I was not.  And so, with my three-letter, utterly snobbish, rating system, I give “Back to the Future: The Musical” at the Paramount Theatre a “stop insulting my intelligence and ruining my favorite movies” NAH.  Call me old fashioned, call me a snob, but when I go to see a musical, I want the music to be good.  Ultimately, just go watch the movie.  I only wish I could have used the time machine to go back and get my evening back.  But, as we know, the time machine didn’t always work.

“Back to the Future: The Musical” performs at the Paramount Theatre through December 22nd.  For tickets or information visit Seattle Theatre Group online at www.stgpresents.org.