David Josefsberg and Lucas Hallauer in the First National Touring Company of BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL | Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade, 2025
Back to the Future: The Musical, presented by Mirvish, is exactly what it promises to be. The book, an adaptation by one of the film’s screenwriters, Bob Gale (who wrote it with director Robert Zemeckis), is impressively faithful to that classic. In 1985, aspiring rockstar teen Marty McFly (Lucas Hallauer), dissatisfied with his home life—his mother’s a drunk and his father’s a pushover—uses his eccentric genius friend Doc Brown’s (David Josefsberg) DeLorean time machine to go back to 1955 where he tries to set his parents up and find his way back to a better future.
Fending off his father’s highschool (and future!) bully, Biff Tannen (Nathaniel Hackmann), and his own mother’s lustful advances, he and and Doc devise a plan to utilize the lighting strike on the town clocktower to give the DeLorean the 1.21 gigawatt jolt needed to send him back. A lot of gags come from Marty’s attempts to fit his 1980s self into a 1950s world. There is an added layer of cultural parody here as the story’s present is now more removed from our present than the 30 year gap between 1955 and 1985. So the 1980s are depicted with the same campy nostalgia as the 1950s and it’s just a little… much.
Not only is the cast giving imitative performances, many of the costumes are also ripped directly from the film. There really isn’t more story here, so the over 30 minutes of added material are musical numbers that don’t feel particularly resonant. The film’s composer, Alan Silvestri, has written the songs with Glen Ballard. They’re catchy enough and energetically choreographed by Chris Bailey, but I just found myself wanting to get back to the book scenes, which are, in essence, the movie. I wanted to be watching the movie.
The most irritating number for me was Doc Brown’s second act opener, “21st Century,” where he fantasizes about experiencing the future while a top-hatted, be-sequinned chorus dances formations around him. Through all this, the backdrop is serving Star Wars hyperdrive visuals—complete with Millennium Falcon cockpit window view. It’s not the only Star Wars reference here, all of which feel clunky given the already established iconography of the BTTF brand on full display here.
I also don’t much care for the self-aware humour either. I guess this show generates a lot of interest from fans of the film who aren’t necessarily musical theatre enthusiasts, because Doc Brown’s chorus line entourage is meant to seem hilariously incongruous. Musical theatre is an established form and I’ve grown tired of such self-aware jabs at it. Ha, ha, but it’s a musical isn’t a particularly funny joke to me.
One of my favourite numbers, in which the camp seemed the most motivated, was “Gotta Start Somewhere,” where the enterprising Black soda jerk, Goldie Wilson (Cartreze Tucker)—who goes on to be Hill Valley’s mayor—gets to flex his ambition and showmanship. Truly, Goldie is the only character here who seems a proper fit for a musical. (And, please, I’d love to see his own story play out in this form!)
I’m also fond of “Pretty Baby,” which turns the scene of Marty waking up in his teenage mother’s bedroom in just his underwear into a full-on 1950s Girl Group Sorority Slumber Party where a trio chorus of girls climbing through the window to try to get their hands on him. It’s very John Waters. It helps that Zan Berube’s Lorraine Baines seems more removed from Lea Thompson’s portrayal than Mike Bindeman’s George McFly is from Crispin Glover’s stilted rhythms.
The greatest appeal of director John Rando’s production is the visual spectacle. Right from the top, there is a sense of being propelled. Designer Tim Hatley has devised a series of break-apart set elements that ground scenes with texture and weight. These are accentuated by video projections designed by Finn Ross. Illusion designer Chris Fisher incorporates projections, scenery, scrims and strategic lighting by Tim Lutkin and Hugh Vanstone to craft some truly immersive, cinematic effects. There is a thrilling frisson as the perceptibly tangible DeLorean seems to speed through environments, pulling us along from multiple angles. And it flies too! Combined with Silvestri’s original main theme, these sequences are undeniably exhilarating.
While I did not find Doc Brown’s ode to his scientific role models, “For the Dreamers,” to be nearly as poignant as the creators intended, there is a later moment with him that I found quietly emotive, enhanced by a striking shift in theatricality. Throughout, there has been such steady motion, so much blaring sound and glaring light, so when Doc is left alone after the success of Marty’s fiery lighting strike departure, there is a moment of wistful quiet and stillness that is all the more evocative because of the high-octane, relentless build-up.
The show could stand to loose its whole finale which turns the McFly family’s refreshed time-line happily-ever-after into a whole town-wide celebration. I know they feel they need to go big with a musical, but sometimes going smaller can leave a more lasting impression. Regardless, the story was over for me and I was bored through the last ten minutes. And I simply didn’t care at all for Marty’s relationship to girlfriend Jennifer (Sophia Yacap). None of the relationships feel especially truthful on their own terms here. Doc and Marty’s bond seems the most convincing and even it doesn’t have the same weight as in the film, struggling as it does with explicit replication. Hallauer is doing a charming impression of Michael J. Fox and Josefsberg is certainly charismatic, but not nearly as compellingly wild-eyed and unhinged as his Christopher Lloyd template.
As one of many stage musical adaptations of popular films, it isn’t one of the best in terms of marrying the property with the form. As a flashy and immersive experience, Back to the Future: The Musical doesn’t skimp out. Nothing here is cheap, but it does feel hollow.
Back to the Future: The Musical
July 23 to August 31, 2025
CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre (244 Victoria Street)
2 hours, 40 minutes (includes intermission)
Lucas Hallauer and Zan Berube in the First National Touring Company of BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL | Photo by McLeod9 Creative, 2025