MANY consider the 1985 film Back to the Future the greatest, and certainly one of the most successful, films of that genre ever made. With music from the 1950s (The Power of Love, Johnny B Goode, Earth Angel, Back in Time) to help accommodate the story going back to that period, the film – and its two sequels – has accumulated an enormous cult following over the past 40-plus years.
On the face of it there appears to be little reason, 35 years after that first successful film’s premiere, for Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale to adapt their film script, and with new music added by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard, to turn Back to the Future into a full scale musical, especially when you consider the wonderful visual effects seen in the original film, and the almost insurmountable problems they throw up in the process of adapting the story to the stage.
It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but, unfazed by the dangers, with a large creative team calling on all the new technical advances now available in the theatre, compared with those of 25 years ago, once-unimaginable effects can be achieved. The result is an outstanding visual production, complete with a two-seater DeLorean sports car, which not only appears to be steaming across the Hippodrome stage doing the magical speed of 86 MPH, but also imitates the Red Arrows acrobatic display team lifting off into space doing a Loop de Loop. It’s a visual treat from start to finish.
That same slap-bang, in-your-face visual presentation can also be seen and heard in the individual performances and ensemble work. Axel Duffy’s adventure-loving, quick-witted teenager Marty McFly, who finds himself accidentally sent back to 1955, and his companion, the loveable, muddle-headed, eccentric scientist Dr Emmett “Doc” Brown (Roger Bart), attack most of their dialogue as if they had a personal dislike of it.
The ramifications encountered by the pair when Marty unthinkingly attempts to rewrite history come thick and fast, as do the mixture of old and new numbers that keep the story for the most part anchored firmly in that mid-20th century period. No need to make comparisons between the film’s Marty and Doc (Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd). These performances fit equally well into this stage version of the story.
The show is laced with a great deal of humour, and there is never any real doubt that our two time-travellers will make their way home, and as a by-product help their loved ones live much happier, more complete lives. James Oliver takes Marty’s dad George from spineless wimp to worthy head of the family, as mum Danielle Rose makes an even bigger transitions from dull near-alcoholic to would-be femme fatale trying to bed her own son, to smart loving wife. There are subtler, but very effective, changes from dislikable to supportive siblings from Blake Jordan and Katrina Stenning as Dave and Linda McFly.
No need for subtlety from Toby Shellard carrying on his bullying Biff Tannen from1955 to 1985, or Rhys Owen’s one comic trick pony Strickland, the would-be severe school head, with little idea of how to be such a man. There are more opportunities for Brandon Lee Sears to display his vocal and dramatic talents and expert comedy timing as the school bandleader who becomes the town mayor.
Good, fulsome and outgoing as are all these performances, with an ensemble that rattles out movement like a Gatling gun in full flight, they have constantly to do battle with probably the biggest and best visual presentation seen all year in this theatre, or any of the other venues they occupy in the show’s first full tour.
If you miss the opportunity to see this visual treat and sit back and wallow in 1950s style music at Bristol Hippodrome, where it is on until Saturday 21st November, you can catch it at Southampton’s Mayflower between Tuesday 8th June 8th and Saturday 3rd July 2027.
GRP