Back To The Future: The Musical - Friday 4th April 2025

Back to the Future is one of my all time favourite movies! I was around when it came it out, and have loved it since I first saw it back then. I also love Musicals, so I was eager to watch this ever since it took to the London stage.

I finally got a round to watching it, and was excited going in.
What followed was a complete and utter travesty!!

How do you take a stone-cold classic and turn it into some cheesy, mediocre piece of uninspired theatre? Go see this show to find out!

Firstly, the songs. As a kid, I owned the Back to the Future soundtrack, because the film had some proper tunes! This ‘reinterpretation’ shuns most of that iconic soundtrack in favour of original songs, so the characters can sing and dance their way through the story.
I love a good song and dance, so it could definitely work, if the songs were any good? Unfortunately, they were all terrible!

Also, the show is reliant on the audience having seen the movie; it takes so many short cuts and liberties, that unless you’ve seen the film, you probably won’t follow the action very well. It should serve as a stand alone piece of theatre, and not act as a poorly performed tribute band.

I could go on, but I feel like I’ve conveyed my disappointment.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where the most successful theatre shows are those that are based on movies, and movies don’t get made unless they’re based on a book, comic, or video game. Audiences simply don’t show up for original work any more, and because of that, we keep being served this slop.

The production design was great, as were the actors. George McFly stole the show, as did the backing dancers, one of whom was so heavily pregnant that watching her dance made me nervous for her safety!

Despite its shortcomings, there were plenty of people in the audience roaring with applause at the end. It’s all so depressing.

Do yourselves a favour and go watch ‘Operation Mincemeat’ instead.