Back To The Future The Musical - Review

Adelphi Theatre, London

*****

Music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard

Book by Bob Gale

Directed by John Rando

Olly Dobson

In a dramatic gesture matched only in magnitude by the invention of the flux capacitor itself, so have the cast and creative team behind Back To The Future The Musical delivered one of the best new musicals to hit the West End in recent years.

Bravely opening as the pandemic (hopefully) fades, the Adelphi was packed to a cheering audience savouring a show that wasn’t just based upon a classic 1985 movie but which takes that film’s narrative to a fourth dimension amidst a veritable nuclear-powered fusion of effects wizardry, video projection, and good old-fashioned human talent.

It’s not just a tough gig to set a science-fiction yarn to music, Back To The Future also demands of its leads that they can inhabit characters including the leads that were so memorably brought to life on screen by Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox . This show however pulls it off with an inspired casting that sees accomplished Broadway actor Roger Bart create the stage version of Doc Brown. Opposite Bart, Olly Dobson is equally convincing as teenage time-traveller Marty McFly.

Nearly 40 years old, the story is a classic. Marty gets sent back in time 30 years by the madcap inventor Brown, where he stumbles across his pre-marital parents. And as his youthfully gorgeous mother Lorraine (Rosanna Hyland) falls for the new kid in town, unaware of course that he is her son, it is down to Marty and the (younger, naturally) Doc to engineer the plot that sees Lorraine fall for her unlikely suitor George McFly, so that in time the pair can marry and beget Marty… 

Roger Bart

Throughout, the acting is flawless, not least with Hugh Coles’ George McFly, a veritable masterpiece of physical comedy. Coles’ perfect interpretation of the hapless George delivers not only perfectly timed hilarity but also immaculately pitched nuance that must surely stand him in good stead when the Olivier for Best Supporting Actor is being considered. There is pathos too in the bond between Marty and the Doc - again, never milked, just perfectly pitched.

And, for the most part, the show’s new songs are also rather clever. In a time when new musical theatre writing can often disappoint, the numbers created here combine humour and passion together with perfectly pitched insight into the human condition. Hello - Is Anybody Home? as Marty gazes despairingly at his (1985) family, is matched in wit by his (youthful) dad’s My Myopia. Whichever of Silvestri or Ballard thought to rhyme myopia with utopia is another deeply talented soul.

Actors and lyrics aside, Back To The Future has always been about the car! So much more than just a ripping yarn, what is needed here has been the translation of a 20th century blockbuster movie crammed full of (non-CGI) special effects and squeezing it into the confines of a proscenium arch, beyond which is a theatre brimming with the expectations of a tech-savvy 21st century audience.

Director John Rando pulls off this task magnificently – aided by Tim Hatley’s design work, Chris Fisher’s illusions, Finn Ross outstanding video projections (Doc Brown’s climbing of the clock tower towards the show’s finale is a hilarious coup-de-theatre in itself!), Gareth Owen’s sound design and Tim Lutkin’s lighting. The staging is imaginative, stunning and clearly expensive – everything that a big West End show should be – and, above all, imaginative. There will be no spoilers in this review – just go and savour what these guys manage to do with a classy company of actors and a DeLorean. (And if this 2021 iteration of the story sees those pesky Libyan terrorists from 1985 get canned in the name of politically correct progress, well hey that's showbiz!)

Jim Henson’s 14 piece band make fine work of the newly scored stuff – theres a great leitmotif running through the show that is a nod to the movie – with the more recent songs standing up well to the timeless gems of Johnny B. Goode and Huey Lewis’ The Power Of Love. The dancework is wonderfully tight too, with choreographer Chris Bailey lobbing in some wonderful moments of pastiche that only add to the evening's splendour.  

It says much for London as a global centre of theatre that the producers have chosen to workshop and launch this All-American show over here and with a predominantly British company of cast and creatives. As soon as circumstances make it possible and profitable, the show deserves a swift transfer across the Atlantic. 

Throughout, Back To The Future The Musical exceeds expectations, consistently delivering excellence in acting, song, dance, and oh, those effects.  Family entertainment in musical theatre does not get better than this. Just go!

Booking until 1st July 2022

Photo credit: Sean Ebsworth Barnes

On The Town - Review

Lyric Theatre, Broadway

*****

Music by Leonard Bernstein
Book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Based on an idea by Jerome Robbins
Directed by John Rando

l-r Jay Armstrong Johnson, Tony Yazbeck and Clyde Alves

On The Town is a classic Broadway show and under John Rando's direction and Joshua Bergasse's inspired choreography, this whimsical tale of three sailors on 24 hours’ New York shore leave makes for flawless musical theatre.

Where to start? Under James Moore's baton, Leonard Bernstein's sumptuously symphonic score is perfectly performed by a 30+ band, deliciously heavy on strings and brass, making for the largest orchestra to be found on Broadway. The show's staging is ingeniously simple, with Beowulf Boritt's projections creating a careering cab as convincingly as Coney Island.

But it is the brilliant performances on stage that define this production as one of the greats. Tony Yazbeck, Jay Armstrong Johnson and Clyde Alves are the love-seeking seamen, with Yazbeck's Gabey demonstrating how beautifully this actor has settled into the role, have played it since early workshop runs. His Lonely Town is a spine-tingling take on the timeless number.

The show famously revolves around Gabey's search for Ivy Smith or “Miss Turnstiles” a former beauty queen of the NY subway. Megan Fairchild is Smith and her ballet is just jaw-dropping. Bergasse precisely sculpts her fine movement, making it impossible to look elsewhere as she glides through her routines. Her introductory song, the Presentation Of Miss Turnstiles, only reinforces the quality of this production’s dance-work.

Gabey's two pals provide much of the perfectly timed comedy of the night. Johnson's virginal Chip, is devoured by Alysha Umphress' taxi driving Hildy. Umphress re-defines "maneater" and the couple's duet Come Up To My Place, sung as her cab improbably screeches through New York, is just the most  inspired stagecraft. The final coupling of the show, Alves' Ozzie who incongruously pairs up with Elisabeth Stanley's perfect creation of repressed society lady Claire, make for another union of faultless dance and vocal work. Their big number, Carried Away complete with dancing dinosaur, is a hoot.

The show drips genius. In supporting roles, Jackie Hoffman as Smith’s drunk and incompetent singing teacher Maude P Dilly (along with some choice cameo appearances later in act 2) is all that a buffoon-like baddy should be, whilst Michael Rupert as Pitkin, Claire’s much cheated upon fiancé brings just the right amount of affronted bombast to another deliciously implausible creation. Elsewhere, popping up in numerous tiny roles is Phillip Boykin’s perfectly booming baritone. Boykin has only just wowed London as Crown in the Open Air Theatre’s Porgy and Bess, so as a visiting Brit in New York it is a true joy to re-encounter this gifted performer.

Who can say if On The Town will transfer across the Atlantic? London deserves it, though truth be told a show that is such a fabled New York fantasy will simply never be bettered than when it plays, to perfection, on Broadway. Go cash in your air miles, stowaway on a ship, or paddle across the Pond if you have to. This is song and dance at its very best – A Helluva Show!

Now booking until 2015