TravelingbeebryantRN & Flicks_withNick

My wife and I celebrated our second anniversary last month, and as a gift, she gave me a weekend getaway to New York. The highlight of the gift was tickets to go see Back to the Future Musical. We had a travel assignment in New Jersey last year, and spent a lot in New York. I think my wife got the hint when I made comments about how I wanted to see the Back to the Future musical, whenever we saw a billboard lol. If anyone knows me, they’ll know that Back to the Future is one of my favorite movies.

Over this past summer Back to the Future musical arrived to the States, after spending years in London, and winning the 2022 Oliver Award for Best New Musical. The musical is  currently being played at the Winter Garden Theater. The movie stars Casey Likes as Marty Mcfly, Roger Bart as Doc Brown, Hugh Coles as Geroge Mcfly, Liana Hunt as Lorraine, and Jelani Remy as Goldie Wilson/Marvin Berry. The musical is based off the book written by Bob Gale. Gale was also a screenwriter for the movie version. The composer of the movie, Alan Silvestri, also returns for music and lyrics of the musical.

Since the musical is written by the one the writers from the movie, the musical closely follows the movie script. The biggest change was the musical not addressing Doc stealing plutonium, as that plot point doesn’t age well. The musical gets most of their humor from addressing the relationship between Marty and his mother in 1955. Some other minor details were changed, so it could be presented for the theater, compared to the movie. 

The production of the show blew me away. I’ve only been to one other broadway show, but I felt like the production Surpassed my expectations. Obviously the star of the show is the DeLorean, and the use of visual screen effects. Some iconic scenes are hard to translate to Broadway, but I thought for a fun laugh they used a projector scene to emulate Doc climbing stairs to the clock tower. Just like the movie, the last 30 minutes is a thrilling adventure that starts at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, and ends with Marty trying to get back to 1985.

My favorite musical numbers from the play was It Works, Pretty Baby, Power of Love, and Back in Time. The only two songs that I felt that was out of place were My Myopia and 21st Century. 21st Century was the first song out of intermission, and for a minute I thought I was in a different theater, as the tone and theme was completely different than the rest of the show. They tried to justify the different tone of the song with a cheap laugh at the end, but for me, this is the one time it’s okay if you’re late coming back from intermission, as you’re not missing much.

Overall my thoughts on the Musical, is that if you’re a fan of the movie, you’ll be a fan of the show. Most songs run fluid with the story, and by the end of the show, everyone is on their feet clapping and dancing. I felt like Roger Bart steals the show, and his humor along with singing presence ups the ante of the show. My wife is not the biggest musical fan, and she even liked his performance, so he must have done a good job lol. If you’re in town I’d recommend seeing this show to do anything looking for a thrilling, adventurous, rock and roll musical.

I would give this Musical a 4/5 rating. Next up, let’s talk about my all time favorite movie, Back to the Future.