Having the chance to watch “Back to the Future: The Musical,” one of the best productions I have ever had the pleasure of seeing, was surprisingly uncomfortable.
The set design, costuming, lighting, and acting were all incredible. The sheer amount of work that went into depicting this movie-turned-musical genuinely had me shell-shocked throughout the entire production. But whether the scenes were set in 1955 or 1985, sitting through watching the women of the musical used as a plot point to be harassed, to take advantage of, and to be saved throughout the plot exemplified the way media continues to casually depict women as expendable.
“Back to the Future: The Musical” is a production based on the 1985 science fiction film “Back to the Future.” Beginning in 1985, the musical follows Marty McFly, a teenager, and his inventor friend Doc Brown as McFly is sent back to 1955 via a time-traveling DeLorean car. Throughout the musical, he accidentally prevents his future parents, teens at the time, from falling in love. He works with the 1950s version of Doc Brown to reunite his parents, thereby securing his future existence and returning to 1985.
Unfortunately, throughout the musical, women like Jennifer and Lorraine are mistreated and cast aside.
Jennifer, Marty’s girlfriend, doesn’t particularly have dreams of her own, but she does push Marty to grow and believe in himself when no one else does. She serves as a catalyst and muse for him to do better, yet she, herself, doesn’t have ambitions of her own. Marty barely thinks of her during the musical, really only shown with her at the start and end of the show. He even entertains, while reluctantly, a relationship with his teenage mother, Lorraine, when he travels to the 50s. If Marty couldn’t just say, “Hey, I have a girlfriend, I’m sorry,” his actions throughout the musical read like Jennifer was never really that important to him.
But that couldn’t have been the end of it: Lorraine was forced to suffer as well. Throughout the entirety of the musical, Lorraine was harassed, almost sexually assaulted, and passed around by the men of the storyline rather than having any agency of her own.
Her introduction as a character starts with teenage George, Marty’s father, staring at Lorraine undressing through the window of her room. And when Lorraine decides to choose her own boyfriend, who, unintentionally, is her son from the future, Marty plots to take advantage of her sexually, so George has a situation in which he can “save” teenage Lorraine to make Marty look entirely unappealing, securing his family’s future. Teenage Bill Tannen, the main antagonist, actually goes through with trying to rape Lorraine, spending much of the musical lusting after her body until George saves her and “claims” Lorraine as his girlfriend.
Even the female background characters are used as props rather than to enhance the storyline. A song in the musical called “It Works” depicts a time-traveling car that features an entirely female dance group. The only purpose they serve is to be Doc Brown’s entourage, tying into a predominant narrative of women and cars: a common male gaze fantasy.
Often, media featuring an action-based plot or several male main characters see women as objects not even worth passing the Bechdel Test. However, the musical, unlike the movie, attempted to address the inequalities and mistakes of the 1950s during a song halfway through, but even so, it fell short in truly depicting these women wholly.
While it is undeniable that “Back to the Future: The Musical” was a phenomenal production, the themes and overall treatment of its female characters feel hollow.
