Review
Review
Review – Back To The Future: The Musical
Funny, fun, and genuinely impressive, Back To The Future: The Musical is a true West End blockbuster
Hot take: Back To The Future has always been a musical. It’s got a Chuck Berry showstopper, an immortal Huey Lewis track, and an Alan Silvestri score that’s impossible not to keep humming. Can anyone really remember Marty McFly’s first arrival in the 50s without ‘Mr Sandman’? Or the bit where his hand goes all weird at the prom without ‘Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)’?
The soundtrack was all Van Halen, Eric Clapton and classic doo-wop – and the movie is now beloved enough and old enough to be a modern classic (When My Fair Lady was first performed on stage, Pygmalion was as old then as Back To The Future is now…), but that doesn’t mean the film was a natural fit for the stage. It might have already had a few decent tunes, but it would need a lot more to be a proper musical. Also someone needed to figure out how to put a speeding Delorian in the middle of a theatre…
Now four years into its Olivier award-winning run, Back To The Future: The Musical is a staple on the West End and Broadway (with a Tokyo run starting in 2025). A masterwork of stagecraft, special effects, music and deep, deep appreciation for the original 80s movie: it feels less like a tribute to the film than it does the next chapter for all musical adaptations.
If you don’t know the story already… go and watch the film. Anyone going in completely fresh will miss a lot of the nods and winks, but while BTTF superfans will enjoy mining the finer details (Orlando Gibbs’ take on Crispen Glover’s line delivery as George McFly deserves its own hall at Comic Con), if you remember the basics you’ll be just fine.
Vasco Emauz and Cory English might not be the Marty and Doc you grew up with, but they also sort of are – two leads in a polished cast that all excel at distilling the best of the film into something that feels comfortably familiar. Choreographer Chris Bailey deserves a special mention for the way he’s designed the movements of each character – Doc’s manic energy, Marty’s teenage pep, George’s janky awkwardness – but its part and parcel of the way the whole production approaches its source material: with love and detail, and not a small amount of irony.
The new songs feel like they’ve always been there, even when they’re gently poking fun. Written by Silvestri and Glen Ballard (former producer for Alanis Morisette, No Doubt, Goo Goo Dolls and more), they weave seamlessly into Bob Gale’s script in a way that feels fresh and honest. ‘It’s Only A Matter Of Time’ and ‘Future Boy’ get the big choruses, but standout character pieces such as ‘Pretty Baby’ (Lorraine), ‘My Myopia’ (George), ‘21st Century’ (Doc), ‘Got No Future’ (Marty) and ‘Gotta Start Somewhere’ (Goldie) all fight for the most memorable moments.
But then there’s the finale. As the story heads towards the Hollywood set-pieces of the film’s last act, the musical finds another gear. Illusion Designer Chris Fisher and Visual Special Effects crew The Twins FX help to turn a small stage into the biggest screen – with some of the West End’s most impressive stagecraft matched by a rock ‘n’ roll climax that hits 1.21 gigawatts of star power. This sucker is nuclear…
Back To The Future: The Musical is now booking until April 2025. Find tickets here
