Broadway at TPAC
Nostalgia with Back to the Future: The Musical
Back to the Future is a hit film that became a trilogy due to its success in combining many elements that people love: time travel, family dynamics, romance, comedy, action, and nostalgia. This nostalgia is especially meta now: while the movie looked back fondly on the 1950’s, people now watch it to look back fondly on the 1980’s. It is one of the few movies to be so dated that it’s a positive feature. The night I attended, Saint Patrick’s Day, the audience was on the older side, with some parents bringing middle-schoolers.
The original film’s co-writer Bob Gale and the original composer Alan Silvestri are behind this musical. I was disappointed to find that this is impossible to notice during the show: while the original theme is played beautifully by the excellent band, and we hear “Johnny B. Good” and “The Power of Love,” the new songs are unmemorable. To borrow from Jenny Nicholson’s review of Mean Girls: The Musical, “the soundtrack sounds like what people who don’t like musicals imagine musical soundtracks sound like.” Most songs are vaguely 80’s or 50’s. Some feel like filler: Goldie Wilson, a funny minor role in the film, gets a whole song to himself without adding anything to his character. There are many large dance numbers that are fun, and some lyrics are funny. “Cake” lauds the glories of the 50’s: leaded gasoline, healthy cigarettes, and white patriarchy, to name a few. Doc’s songs are my favorite, since they all have a comically large ensemble of over-dressed backup dancers. I laughed out loud at the end of “Future Boy” when the song ends and the dancers remain in the room, leading to awkward dialogue until Doc Brown kicks them out.
The film is 1 hour 56 minutes, and the musical is 2 hours and 40 minutes (with one intermission). With such a time disparity, I expected additions to the plot, but besides Mayor Goldie Wilson repeatedly showing up for minor interactions, and Jennifer’s LA Uncle Huey showing up at the end, the plot is slightly edited and misses many details of the film. Some of the changes are because of the limitations of staging: the Libyan Nationalists are replaced by radiation poisoning, George isn’t hit by Loraine’s dad’s car but only falls out of a tree, the fight in the cafeteria and diner are merged into one scene. But the scene where Marty scares George by pretending to be an alien is cut, as well as the subplot to borrow the car with Jennifer, among others.
Jokes and pop culture references have been added, including a lightsaber and a hoverboard (the two-wheeled modern one, not a floating one from the second film). This show puts more effort into their location than any other I’ve seen so far: besides references to the Predators and hot chicken, a projected map at the end of the show zooms out of Nashville. This matches the general tone of references for reference’s sake.
A challenge of a musical adaptation like this is the audience’s familiarity with the material. My family watched the DVD on repeat as a kid, so I know the film exceptionally well. When adapting the film to stage, do you do an impression of the actor in the movie, or do you change the role? Different people made different choices. David Josefsberg makes the Doc his own, a goofy and cheerful mad scientist, which works quite well. Lucas Hallauer as Marty does a very accurate Michael J. Fox, and other actors vary their portrayals, usually opting for delivering their iconic lines exactly the same as the movie, and then playing the rest of their role in their own way. The dancers are great, and the costumes have a lot of fun variety: 80’s, 50’s, and some very interesting futuristic outfits for Doc’s dream “21st Century.”
The special effects are fantastic. Since it’s based on a movie, the plot constantly moves locations, and there are sets for each one, which move on and off stage fluidly: homes, hallways, classrooms, a barn, etc. The set itself can spin too, and often does while people are on it, which is fun to watch. They have classic backdrops, as well as projector screens and a translucent screen up front. These are used perfectly. At the end, as Doc Brown climbs the clock tower, the effects are timed up perfectly with his movements, animated ledges crumbling away as he climbs on an actual clock behind the screen.
But what really steals the show is the DeLorean. It wins the Grace Krenz award for “Best Sudden Entrance in a Musical.” Doc explains to Marty that he’s working on a time machine, when the car suddenly appears seemingly out of nowhere. Like it actually seemed to appear out of nowhere. When the DeLorean is being driven it moves around the stage independently, with spinning wheels and exciting lights, and the projection screen moves with it, making it look like it’s really driving 88 mph. At the end, when Doc says “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads,” it lifts off the ground and moves around in the air, jutting far further over the audience than you would expect. We all cheered like crazy for these moments.
I can’t help comparing this musical experience to Beetlejuice: The Musical, which came to TPAC in ‘24 (and will be returning in June ‘27, woot woot!). That musical adaptation of a beloved 80’s classic blew me away, and fulfilled the spirit of the movie in a way only live theater can. Back to the Future feels more like the movie with songs added between scenes.
Basically, your first reaction to hearing that there’s a new musical based on Back to the Future tells you all you need to know about whether you’ll enjoy the show. If it sounds like a blast, you absolutely will enjoy yourself. If not, Broadway at TPAC has fantastic shows lined up, both this and next season, so there’s no shortage of exciting live theater!
A nostalgia-fueled spectacle, combining a rewatch with something new, Back to the Future: The Musical is at TPAC through March 21st. The show is almost entirely sold out, but currently a few tickets remain for each performance. If you want to see the show, get them now!
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
A Nashville native and MTSU graduate, Grace Krenz is a reader, a writer, and an arts enthusiast. She lives in Nashville with her husband and two children.
