‘Back to the Future’ Broadway Review: Bleak Future
Broadway's latest attempt to adapt a classic movie for the stage puts visual excess over actual substance.
Broadway may have simultaneously reached an all-time high and a record low with Back to The Future: The Musical.
Technically, it’s one of the most elaborate productions you’ve ever seen. It’s also one of the most obnoxiously shameless attempts to wring as much juice and money as possible from an overcooked franchise.
Three blockbuster movies apparently weren’t enough for co-creators and producers Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis. The two are behind the beloved film as well as the stage production and must have determined that bringing it to Broadway would mean beaucoup bucks.
After all, people love to revisit their favorite flicks. Why make them sit at home and stream the movie for free when they can shell out hard-earned dollars to see an attempted live replica of it before their very eyes?
Much of Bob Gale’s book is directly lifted from the 1985 classic starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. There is no need to delve into a plot summary, but for those somehow unfamiliar with source material, here’s a thumbnail sketch: In 1985, teenager Marty McFly (Casey Likes), time travels thirty years into the past with the help of his kooky scientist friend, “Doc” Emmett Brown (Roger Bart) and a reconfigured DeLorean.
In 1955, he finds himself in his hometown of Hill Valley with his nerdy father, George (Hugh Coles) and his mother, Lorraine (Liana Hunt) who, in an uncomfortably weird twist, has an Oedipal crush on her son. Everyone is frightened of the town bully Biff (Nathaniel Hackmann), and a young man named Goldie Wilson (Jelani Remy) works at the malt shop, aspiring to become the town’s mayor.
While some movies lend themselves to musicality and make sense as stage adaptations, there is absolutely nothing about Back to the Future suggesting a necessary musical treatment. So why bother? For the simple reason of showcasing not a star, but rather, a car.
While the exceptional creative team has designed lights, video, sound, and projection of cinematic quality that elicit Pavlovian cheers from the “flying” DeLorean, it’s fair to question how much value we’re placing on sight over substance. This show has all of the former and none of the latter.
Likes is a phenomenal young talent who made his Broadway debut in last season’s Almost Famous: The Musical (another film-to-stage adaptation that, apart from a few strong performances, was virtually unwatchable). Likes has a terrific voice and is comfortable in the spotlight. As McFly, he’s the only one capturing the essence of Fox’s original performance rather than doing a full-on imitation.
The same cannot be said for his fellow leads. Bart’s attempt to embody Lloyd is a misfire, especially since his “Doc” Brown looks more like Bruch Vilanch and sounds like Mario Cantone. Bart, a Tony winner and usually gifted physical comedian, is simply mugging throughout. It’s a one-note performance that is hugely annoying.
Not quite as irritating as Coles, however, whose weenie persona whines through every line and song. Coles’ George McFly should be endearing and loveable, but his dorky vocal affectation is endlessly grating. The actor won an Olivier Award for playing the same role in the London production. Then again, the entire show won an Olivier for Best New Musical in 2022. As Tennessee Williams once observed, “Life is an unanswered question.”
Hunt is serviceable as Lorraine McFly but unfortunately has to role-play popping a pimple on-stage (gross) and execute an incestuous storyline (even grosser). Hackmann and Remy have moments to shine, but those moments are forced — almost as if composer Alan Silvestri, who scored the original film, felt obligated to give them songs because they are major characters.
The whole score is a stretch. Songs in musical theater should exist either to move the plot along or to serve as a filler for a set or costume change. Here, they exist to deafen the audience with insipid lyrics and forgettable melodies.
Ads around Manhattan for Back to the Future proclaim, “It’s time to change musical theater history.” Sadly, it’s already changed — and not for the better.
While there has been much criticism lately about the scarcity of set design and production value on Broadway, the creatives here have shifted into overdrive, swinging the pendulum completely to the opposite end. Back to the Future is quite simply an AI version of theater. When cheering a live performance takes a back seat to praise an inanimate object, we’ve forsaken the human element.
Last fall, Broadway star Patti LuPone expressed her dismay at the state of theater to Variety magazine. “I don’t think plays are going to have long lives on Broadway,” she said. “I feel as though it’s turning into Disneyland, a circus and Las Vegas.” How right you are, Ms. Lupone — at least when it comes to the latest tenant of the Winter Garden Theatre.
Back to the Future is currently playing at the Winter Garden Theatre, 1634 Broadway, in New York City. Tickets are $58 to $318. Visit www.backtothefuturemusical.com.
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