"Back to the Future: The Musical" somehow makes a sci-fi story from 1985 seem ahead of its time in 2026.
Bolstered with a mind-blowing away of rotating stagecraft orchestrated with dizzying lighting, booming sound and sizzling projections, the musical makes the special effects wonders of the film seem as crude as shadow puppets by comparison. I tend to be a purist who sees projections as a crutch, preferring old school practical effects, but the visual pyrotechnics are crucial to immersing the audience into the story's array of time travel wizardry.
Based on the iconic Robert Zemeckis film, the touring show is the extension of the show that dazzled London audiences and seized the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 2022 before making its way to Broadway for an 18-month run.
Key to setting the tone is the intro's adaptability. An opening map shows the current time and location before zapping you over to 1985 Hill Valley, California, where Marty McFly begins his Oedipal journey to 1955.
The cast is as finely tuned as the audiovisual goodies. Lucas Hallauer delivers Michael J. Fox levels of squeaky-voiced charisma in the lead role, and David Josefsberg captures the manic exuberance of Christopher Lloyd. The character's surrogate father-son dynamic is the endearing emotional core to the wacky, jigsaw-puzzle story. It's also hard not to catch a strong whiff of "Rick and Morty," which was heavily inspired by the trilogy.
In less showy, somewhat thankless roles, Nathaniel hackann and Kathryn Adeline provide crafty dual roles as Marty's world-wary parents in 1985 and their goofy teen 1955 versions. Ross Thompson also shines as the buffoonish Biff. Were the world mine, we would see this entire cast return for stage adaptations of the other two films in the trilogy.
While the running time is a tad bloated at 160 minutes, the puffy song and dance numbers are too much fun to turn away. Each adds a shade of pathos that was missing from the original text, allowing characters to step out of themselves and consider their plights and drives. In particualar, "It's Only a Matter of Time" amd "For the Dreamers" hit with an emotional wallop.
"Back to the Future: The Musical" starts strong out of the gate, cranks in 1.21 gigawatts through the intermission and lights the streets afire for a final act that reaches levels of goosebumped revelry. Time machines may not exist, but the musical shows that time travel, through the power of storytelling, is an embedded truth. For those 160 minutes, you'd swear you were back in 1985.
"Back to the Future: The Musical" plays through Sunday at Centennial Hall. Buy tickets here.
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