Gordon and I went to Back to the Future, the Musical at the Pantages last Wednesday. I didn’t know what to expect. The movie is tech heavy and I had no idea how they’d tell the story. They pulled it off. Some minor points had to be changed, of course, but they stayed true to the story on the main points. The staging was brilliant. Lots of good effects. I still haven’t figured out how they did the flying car at the end but it’s a great effect. Music and lyrics were written by Alan Silvestri, the Hollywood score composer. It worked but it wasn’t memorable. The Huey Lewis tunes from the movie were used so I was happy. The actors were all good and seemed to have fun camping things up. I particularly liked Burke Swanson as George McFly and Ethan Rogers as Biff. Swanson had incredible body movement. He’s either a great dancer or a yogi. Biff is a thankless part but Rogers made him amusing. He’s got a great voice. I’m sure we’ll see him in lots of future stuff.
We were talking to the people behind us at intermission and they pointed out the actress who played the pregnant mother sitting next to them. We all had a nice chat. It was opening night so at the end of the show Bob Gale, the producer of the movie and the musical invited the people who contributed to both productions up on the stage. That included: Frank Marshall (produced the Indiana Jones movies too), Robert Zemeckis (original movie director, also directed Forest Gump), the British director of the musical (don’t know what he was doing in Hollywood, maybe looking for a job), the actress sitting behind us (can’t remember her name), and some other actors from the movie. The crowd went wild. It was a fun night. You’re not going to come to earth-shaking revelations about the universe but it’s an entertaining show and we all need to be entertained these days. Go see it. Lotsa fun.