Review: BACK TO THE FUTURE at Des Moines Performing Arts

"Great, Scott!" Des Moines Performing Arts is opening another season of fantastic shows coming directly from Broadway.  One exciting thing about this season is that all six shows in the season ticket package are in the first year of their national tours. Their 2024/2025 season kicks off with the Lawrence Olivier Award winning musical "Back to the Future." While the show won Best Musical in London, it didn't fare as well on Broadway.  While both productions are still running, the question I had coming into this was if the show would hit 88 miles per hour and be a hit or not.

Most people going into this show are familiar with the movie; that was clear by the number of people I saw wearing jeans and red puffer vests. But if you haven't seen the movie or aren't familiar with the story, "Back to the Future" centers around teenager Marty McFly. He dreams of being a successful guitar player, but after losing a spot at an audition, he feels like he is going to become like his alcoholic mother or his father, who will not stick up for himself. 

Late one night, he meets up with Doc Brown, who has invented a time-traveling DeLorean.  We discover that the DeLorean's time travel is powered by radioactive plutonium. After Doc replaces it, we soon find out he has radium positioning, and as he passes out on the ground, Marty takes the DeLorean and rushes to the hospital.  When he reaches 88 miles per hour, he goes back in time to when his parents were in high school.  Before long, he accidentally stops them from meeting, meaning he may soon be wiped out of existence.  Will he be able to get his parents back together, and will he be able to get back to the future? You'll have to go to the show to find out.

Visually, this show was stunning to watch.  You could see the care set and Costume Designer Tim Hatley had put into the show.  The costumes use the iconic looks from the movie as a basis and then expand on it. This is also seen in his sets, which mix with the video designs of Finn Ross and the illusions of Chris Fisher. Each time the DeLorean comes onto the stage, you know magic is about to happen.  The way it appears or disappears is a true feat worth the price of tickets. What I appreciated most was that you don't see how they make the magic happen, whether sitting further back in the theatre or towards the front.

When thinking about the cast, there are two characters that people's minds go instantly to: Marty McFly and Doc Brown.  The roles were played by Caden Brauch and Don Stephenson, respectively, on opening night. Caden does an excellent job of finding the moments we all expect to see out of Marty McFly while finding moments that he can make the character his own.  One example of this is during "Johnny B Goode." We get to see him do some of the iconic moves from the movie, but it doesn't feel like he is replicating what was done in the film.

The role I struggled the most with was Don Stephenson as Doc Brown.  While he certainly captures the zaniness you want out of the character, he brings some nuances to the character that people further back in the house don't get to see.  I was able to see these moments sitting closer to the stage at a different performance.  While the character is still fun to watch, Doc Brown didn't capture what people loved about the character in the original film the show was based on.

One special shout-out goes to Zan Berbube, who plays Lorraine. Her choices gave us three very distinct looks at her character: the alcoholic mother, the lovestruck teenager, and then another version at the end of the show. While each was different, they still felt tied together in a way that made you instantly know who the character was.

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