‘Back to the Future: The Musical’ review: Watch the movie instead

Pleasant and scrumptious? No — it’s DeLorean. 

“Again To The Future: The Musical,” which opened Thursday night time on Broadway, doesn’t have a lot going for it in the best way of tuneful songs, show-stopping dances or enthralling storytelling. Nevertheless it does have a star car. 

Its very personal Wells Fargo Time Machine. A Chitty Chitty Flux Capacitor. A Greased (Struck By) Lightnin’.

Onstage, the well-known DeLorean drives, spins, flies and turns the wrong way up with the actors inside it. The hotrod is the most important particular impact the Winter Backyard Theatre has seen since “Rocky the Musical” plopped a boxing ring in the midst of the orchestra practically 10 years in the past.

However Huey Lewis didn’t sing “Energy of Automobile,” he sang “Energy of Love.” And coronary heart is totally absent from director John Rando’s shiny and serviceable staging of the beloved 1985 science-fiction film.

Coursing emotion, teen angst and can-do scrappiness are what set director Robert Zemeckis’ authentic movie aside from different entries within the time-travel style. “Again To The Future” wasn’t HG Wells or “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Residence.” And it’s hardly remembered as a flashy spectacle, both. The flick was a enjoyable ‘80s journey romp a couple of guitarist who winds up in 1955 Essential Road, America. 

“Future” didn’t star someone severe like Charlton Heston in “The Planet of the Apes,” however as an alternative solid smart-aleck Michael J. Fox, who was then greatest often known as the hilarious Alex P. Keaton on “Household Ties.”

On Broadway, nevertheless, we have now a bloated gizmo no one requested for that, whereas gratifying in components and with an embraceable star in Casey Likes as Marty, by no means justifies its perplexing existence as a stage musical. “Reenact the film, certain,” the viewers sits there considering. “However please cease singing.”

Moreover its unlucky songs and a few 2023 tweaks — Doc Brown (Roger Bart) now will get plutonium poisoning at first as an alternative of being shot to loss of life by Libyan terrorists — the present is beat-for-beat the identical plot because the movie up till a extra neatly wrapped-up ending.

Marty McFly (Likes) continues to be a excessive school-hating insurgent whose geeky father George (Hugh Coles) has grown right into a sad-sack disappointment that’s continuously suffering from his bully boss Biff (Nathaniel Hackman). So Marty seeks refuge on the residence of Doc, the native Hill Valley, Calif., mad scientist.

Throughout a nighttime parking-lot demo of his new DeLorean time machine, Doc is fatally poisoned. So, the child should return in time to save lots of his good friend’s life. However, whoops, the automobile runs out of juice at his vacation spot and he’s caught for good in 1955. So it’s as much as Previous Doc to assist Marty return … to the long run! 

Hyperactive Bart does to Doc precisely what he did to Fredrick in “Younger Frankenstein”: talks ultra-fast, grimaces and shouts. His Brown is a clown who’s not possible to care one iota about, not to mention 1.2 gigawatts. His one huge track referred to as “twenty first Century,” a trippy dream sequence at first of Act 2, is the present’s most vital departure from the film. Nevertheless it’s hampered by a creepy, ’90s KoolAid cult vibe.

The place the present considerably finds its approach are the scenes that includes the youthful variations of Marty’s mother Lorraine (Liana Hunt) and pop. By coming involved with them — she will get the hots for her personal child — he screws up the world’s timeline and doubtlessly his very existence. Due to this fact, Marty should be sure that the ‘rents meet and fall in love on the Enchantment Underneath The Sea Dance.

These hormonal shenanigans no less than permit for some amusing broad comedy onstage, largely that includes the wonderful Coles as geeky George. Coles, at first, does a terrifyingly spot-on Crispin Glover impression, after which finds artfulness in mimicry by exaggerating his actions in a extremely theatrical approach. His learning-to-be-cool duet with Likes, referred to as “Put Your Thoughts To It,” is without doubt one of the solely songs you’ll keep in mind all night time.

In any other case the rating, by Glen Ballard (of “Jagged Little Tablet” fame), is terrible at any time when it’s not borrowing from Alan Silvestri’s rousing theme music from the movie. You’ll be aware its inferiority when glorious songs from the film, reminiscent of “Johnny B. Goode” and “Energy of Love” are carried out amid all the fashionable mediocrity.

And the viewers is particularly grateful for the well-known outdated one-liners (“Nice Scot!,” “Ronald Reagan? The actor?!”) when the unique screenwriter Bob Gale’s new e book offers Doc a cringey joke about COVID.

Marty marks the second iconic movie-to-stage function for Likes in a missing musical adaptation, after final season’s “Nearly Well-known.” He’s undoubtedly a giant expertise and he brings the identical gee-whiz power right here that’s really easy for an viewers to root for. How unlucky that he’s been finished such a disservice by this forgettable music. He’s a much better singer than the musical lets him be.

Some will insist that the present is supposed for “Again to the Future” tremendous followers solely. Effectively, talking as a kind of tremendous followers who has watched the movie trilogy numerous occasions to the purpose of “Pledge of Allegiance”-like recitation, the musical left me chilly and uninvolved.    

It made me need to return… to the film!