“Back to the Future: The Musical” is embarking on a time-traveling tour, making a stop at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.
“Back to the Future” is an ’80s blockbuster hit. Alongside being a part of the popular sci-fi genre, this film catered to a young audience through themes of sexual liberation and broken family structures.
Anytime I told someone I hadn’t seen “Back to the Future,” I got the same shocked reaction. Typically, people see movie-related musicals because they’ve already experienced the original film.. Given that this was my first time being introduced to the story, whatever was in the musical is what I imagined the movie to be. After watching the film at home, I quickly learned how musicals adapt to the times.
In the musical, Dr. Emmett Brown dies because of high exposure to radiation from the time machine’s main ingredient, plutonium. In the original film, Doc gets shot and killed by Libyans, labeling them as terrorists. There was no mention of Doc’s connection to the Libyans or why it was relevant to the film.
The film also features only two prominent Black characters: Mayor Goldie Wilson and Marvin Berry. Marvin Berry sings at the school’s dance, where Marty is trying to get his parents back together. As Marty is outside fighting with Bif’s goons, Marvin’s music group comes outside to help him fight. In this scene, one of Bif’s goons says, “We don’t want any trouble with no reefer addicts,” to this group of Black singers. This was left out of the musical, thankfully. They substituted it with Marvin being the only one outside, yet still willing to help Marty.
In 2025, these scenes would not be suitable for inclusion in any form of art unless they were relevant to the story. I appreciate how the musical worked out through this and successfully pulled off a new narrative while staying true to the original plot.
The main characters kept their same witty traits, but were, of course, dramatized in the musical. George McFly (Marty’s dad) had that same comical laugh and nerdy characteristics. In the movie, he did not look nerdy at all, though. He’s pretty handsome in the film if you ask me. Lorraine McFly (Marty’s mom) had the hots for Marty as part of the story, but it wasn’t something you could ignore in the musical. Through songs like “Pretty Baby” and “Something About That Boy,” Lorraine’s voice inflections truly emphasized her fantasies with Marty, or, in her eyes, Calvin Klein.
There were other aspects of the play that weren’t in the movie or vice versa. Einstein (Doc’s dog) did not exist in the musical. Instead of Doc sending Einstein to the future, as in the film, he sent himself to the future. Mr. Strickland was more dramatic in the musical. He holds a megaphone to Mary’s face as the audience can hear him yell the word slacker from a mile away. Towards the end of the film, Marty starts to fade away, struggling to get his parents to kiss. This was omitted from the musical. Of course, a human can’t fade away, but I would’ve loved it if Marty started dying dramatically on stage.
At the end of the film, Doc warns Marty about the future of his kids. In the musical, Doc tells them they need to hurry and get to Sept. 23, 2025, the date of the Atlanta show.
