Back to the Future: The Musical at the Peace Center

Just in time for its 40th anniversary, Robert Zemeckis’ film Back to the Future has hopped into a DeLorean and time-traveled to the Peace Center in a decidedly different form. 

Following in the footsteps of such movies-turned-musicals as Kinky Boots, Pretty Woman, and Beetlejuice, the stage adaptation lets fans experience a story they love, filtered through the magic of live theater. And while Back to the Future: The Musical offers plenty of fan service and jazzes up the familiar tale with cutting-edge Broadway production value, the connective tissue struggles to keep up.

Though it’s often a good sign when musicals loop in talent from the respective source material, it’s tough to tell if doing so here was a good idea. A book by the movie’s co-writer Bob Gale and music and lyrics co-written by the film’s composer Alan Silvestri root the adaptation in the qualities that have made Back to the Future such a beloved movie, but in turn perhaps hinder the stage version from being more successful as a musical.

It goes without saying that this medium needs great songs to work. Responsible for aiding and abetting such cinematic Zemeckis misadventures as The Polar Express, Beowulf, and Pinocchio with forgettable original tunes, the team of Silvestri and Glen Ballard fare only slightly better serving the epic story of Marty McFly (played here by Michael J. Fox doppelgänger Lucas Hallauer).

Used almost exclusively to flesh out major plot points as Marty escapes his ho-hum 1985 existence, hops in the DeLorean time machine invented by Doc Brown (Don Stephenson), and transports to 1955, the show’s original songs feel forced and arrive at such obvious junctures that their timing becomes increasingly predictable.

The one time the team deviates from this pattern, it results in a stunner. Untethered to a critical scene, Silvestri and Ballard take the fun, throwaway moment of Marty telling a young, floor-sweeper Goldie Wilson (Cartreze Tucker) that he’ll one day run for Mayor and produce by far the production’s best song. Combining Tucker’s energetic, golden vocals with instrumental vibrancy from the pit quartet, “Gotta Start Somewhere” packs a punch that’s sorely missing from the other new tunes.

If you’re able to accept the mediocre music as an unfortunate reality, there’s still a lot to like about Back to the Future: The Musical. Overall extremely faithful to Gales’ and Zemeckis’ script, the book makes a few wise tweaks — namely the details of how Marty gets sent back to 1955, which rids the story of Islamophobia and gun violence. And there’s not a weak link in the ensemble.

The rapport between Hallauer and Stephenson solidifies Marty & Doc as one of the all-time great duos, and Mike Bindeman is a delight as George McFly, using his lankly limbs to channel the manic energy of Crispin Glover — exaggerated even more here for theatrical effect. Elsewhere, Zan Berube excels at channeling Lorraine Baines’ pent-up sexuality, Ethan Rogers fully brings Biff Tannen’s bully energy to life, and Luke Antony Neville consistently earns laughs in a variety of loudmouth roles, particularly as Principal Strickland and Lorraine’s father Sam.

But film-accurate performances are expected and required for an adaptation of this manner to work — it’s in the additions that they stand out as distinct creations. And with the musical elements not up to the challenge, the onus falls to stage designer Tim Hatley, who more than delivers.

Any scene involving the shiny Delorean is a treat, and the vehicle’s initial entrance delivers an applause-worthy jolt. In tandem with his digital projection crew — especially Finn Ross (video designer) and Chris Fisher (illusion designer) — Hatley brings the main car sequences to thrilling life. Doc’s climb up the clocktower stairs is likewise impressive, though anyone expecting an epic bit of action where he reconnects the cables will likely be disappointed.

This burst bubble stems from the production’s general disinterest in stunt work, which also neuters the show’s version of the film’s opening scene. Rather than have a cartoonishly large speaker blast Marty across Doc’s room, the stage compromise kills the mood and gets Back to the Future: The Musical off to a sluggish start. But as it gradually nails one classic movie moment after another, culminating in its own version of “Defying Gravity,” the weaknesses fade like Marty’s siblings in his guidepost photo and the film’s magic shines bright.

Back to the Future: The Musical runs through May 18 at the Peace Center. For details and tickets, visit peacecenter.org.

(Photo by McLeod9 Creative)