Review Roundup: BACK TO THE FUTURE Launches National Tour; Read the Reviews!
The tour kicked off in June 2024 at Proctors in Schenectady, New York, and will continue through Summer 2025.
By: Stephi Wild Jun. 26, 2024
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The National Tour of Back to the Future the Musical is now underway! The tour kicked off in June 2024 at Proctors in Schenectady, New York, and will continue through Summer 2025.
Joining Don Stephenson as Doc Brown and Caden Brauch as Marty McFly, principals include Burke Swanson as George McFly, Zan Berube as Lorraine Baines, Cartreze Tucker as Goldie Wilson/Marvin Berry, Ethan Rogers as Biff Tannen, and Luke Antony Neville as Principal Strickland.
Ensemble members include Joshua Blackswan Abbott, Emily Applebaum, Tade Biesinger, Ina Black, Brittany Bohn, Luther Brooks IV, Alyssa Carol, Jenny Dalrymple, Lucas Hallauer, Laura Sky Herman, Will Jewett, Ben Lanham, Kiara Lee, Dwayne P. Mitchell, Zoe Brooke Reed, Fisher Lane Stewart, and Ross Thompson.
Read the reviews below!
Roy Berko, BroadwayWorld: Yes, there was some carping that “the score [which contains such quickly forgettable songs as “Got No Future,” “Cake,” “Something About the Boy” and “For the Dreamers”] was mainly superfluous,” but audiences don’t seem to mind. In fact, if the assemblage at the Key Bank State Theatre the night I saw the touring show is any indicator, the musical will also become a cult favorite as it tours the hinterlands.
Joey Morona, Cleveland.com: The worst thing you can do is come to “Back to the Future: The Musical” and expect the movie. The differences — big and small — could drive longtime fans of the 1985 blockbuster crazy. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd aren’t walking through the door at the KeyBank State Theatre anytime soon either.
Christine Howey, Scene: In this stage iteration directed by John Rando, Caden Brauch plays Marty as if he's a minor character who surprisingly found himself with a lot of lines to read. His stage presence is minimal, and his singing and acting are no more than okay. But what's missing is the goofy charm that makes his character relatable. When he finds himself in the bedroom of high schooler Lorraine (Zan Berube), the exquisite strangeness of a teen being hit on by his own mom, now young as himself, is not played to maximum effect.
Sheri Gross, Cleveland Jewish News: Where the show tends to stall is during the long list of musical numbers, all performed well, but many feeling a bit unnecessary and unmemorable. It is certainly not due to a lack of creativity. This is not Grammy-winners Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard’s first rodeo. But it might be the fact that the story simply does not need 21 songs and four reprises to be “rad.” It just needs a strong cast, a script that every Gen Xer can quote from top to bottom and totally tubular special effects that appeal to the kid in all of us. And this production has all of the above.
Average Rating: 65.0%
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Review by Laura Kennelly
Time travel? Yes, please. At least if it’s Back to the Future: The Musical.
This Broadway take on time travel whooshed into the State Theatre at Playhouse Square last week. Starting its national tour in Cleveland, the show is a fun blast from the past.
Yes, it’s a remake of the hit 1985 film by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis.
This musical adventure story begins when teen Marty McFly accidentally messes up the present (1985) by speeding in a time travel machine (AKA a plutonium-fueled DeLorean) built by eccentric scientist Doc Brown (Don Stephenson). As it turns out, Marty must go back to the 1950s to be sure his parents share a first kiss at the high school dance. If he fails, he won’t exist. How’s that for a mission?
Caden Brauch, our teen hero Marty McFly, shares the appealing personality that Michael J. Fox showed in the same role in the original film. Brauch’s expressive face and moves convey panic, embarrassment, exuberance and triumph as he drives into the past and meets his parents, teenagers just like himself. (It’s weird to realize that your parents were once young, and Brauch helps us see that and more.)
As erratic experimenter Doc Brown, Don Stephenson also excels. The pair play off each other and move the story back to the future and back to the past and — just back and forth. It’s fun to cheer Brauch and Stephenson along as they make the sci-fi premise seem reasonable.
Director John Rando respects the film’s quirky plot. It’s as if he’s telling an outrageous joke with a straight face. Of course, some adaptations were made in shifting from film to stage, but projections combined with a lot of noise and one big prop successfully hint at the magically equipped car’s time travel power.
But it’s the music that really brings back time past. What are now “classic” 1950s songs (such as “Johnny B. Goode” and “Earth Angel”) bouncily combine with new compositions by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard. The Silvestri and Ballard songs are easy to listen to but can’t top the evocative power of the “real” thing (for those of “a certain age” anyway).
Bottom Line: Enhanced by special effects, plus spot-on perfect casting, Back to the Future: The Musical is one of summer’s “must see” musicals. (And stick around at the end for what might turn into a group sing-along.)