Interview: Cartreze Tucker of BACK TO THE FUTURE at TUTS

BACK TO THE FUTURE THE MUSICAL has hit Houston’s Hobby Center and plays for just a week through April 5th. Coming along with the trucks and buses of this adaptation of the 1985 Spielberg and Zemeckis hit film is Cartreze Tucker. He is a native of Georgia and is playing two roles: Goldie Wilson and Marvin Berry. You will know him by his distinctively high voice and his huge stage presence. BROADWAY WORLD writer Brett Cullum got a chance to chat with the divo known as Cartreze. 

Brett Cullum: Welcome to SPACE CITY, Cartreze. How long have you been with this tour? 

Cartreze Tucker: I have been with this tour since the beginning, so since 2024, for 2 years. I had a friend who saw the show in London, and he came back, and he was like, “Oh, I just saw BACK TO THE FUTURE in London, I loved it, there's a part for you.” And my reply was, “There are Black people in Back to the Future?!?” and he was like, “Yes, there's the mayor, and he sings just like you!” So, once he told me it was a great part for me, I had to have it. Then I saw they were going on tour, auditioned, had 6 callbacks, and here we are.

Brett Cullum: Oh, wow. That's amazing! But two years on tour is a long time. What is it like being in BACK TO THE FUTURE? It's gotta be kind of a different kind of experience than maybe your traditional classical musical, like CAROUSEL or THE MUSIC MAN. I mean, this is a movie adaptation of a pop culture institution from 1985! 

Cartreze Tucker: Honestly, it's so silly. It's a really fun show to be in and do every day. It is deceptively difficult. But it is a lot of fun. Before this, I toured with THE COLOR PURPLE, and that's when I was at the Hobby Center last, with THE COLOR PURPLE, right before the pandemic. Oh, yeah. And talk about it being drastically different, honey. Night and day. Night and day. 

Brett Cullum: But weirdly enough, both big movies from the 80s with Steven Spielberg involved! You are specializing in this! You're gonna be in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS THE MUSICAL, or a musical version of JAWS!

Cartreze Tucker: Yeah, I'm gonna play E.T. next. Yes!

Brett Cullum: That'd be great! Alright, I am manifesting it now! Coming to Tuts in 2028. We’re going to need major wire systems for those bicycles in the sky! But getting us back on track,  what have audience reactions been like for BACK TO THE FUTURE?

Cartreze Tucker: It's crazy! It's such a cultural piece, so people have very visceral, very nostalgic feelings about the movie. So we get superfans who come dressed up, and generational families, fathers bringing their kids, because the dad loved the movie! It's crazy, so you get a variety of people, and then you get people who just love musicals, right? It's a very weird dichotomy, because you'll get people who know nothing about musicals, who love the movie, and then you have people who love musicals, and somehow they meet in the middle, and we have BACK TO THE FUTURE THE MUSICAL!

Brett Cullum: One of the things that I've noticed with these movie musicals, though, is that they don't follow the movie exactly. Is the story a little bit adapted for the musical? I mean, do you feel like there are some changes?

Cartreze Tucker: It is 99.9% the same, note-for-note, word-for-word. There are minor differences, because there are just certain things you can't do! But we do A LOT onstage! Everything's the same! 

Brett Cullum: Tell me, how did you get started in theater? Where did this all come in?

Cartreze Tucker:  I started very late, my junior year of high school. I wanted to go to med school, and I needed an elective, so I was like, oh, well, I'll just do theater, like, they… I feel like they don't do anything there. It’s an easy A! And I was with a friend at the time, we were sitting in my 1991 Honda Accord, and I was just singing along with the radio, and she was like, “You can sing?” And I said, “Can't everyone?” And she was like, “No!” She coerced me into auditioning for the musical. That sort of got the ball rolling. We did Guys and Dolls, and I was Sky. They just had me doing everything. And I was just like, “Oh, this is fun, this is absolutely insane!” And then I realized that people got paid. I said, “You can get paid to do this?”  Did you know they pay me for BACK TO THE FUTURE? That's crazy. People get paid, so I went to theater school at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and I moved from Georgia to New York City at 19 to attend. And, yeah, I did the whole program, and then 4 months after graduating, I booked my first national tour, which was HAIR!  

Brett Cullum: Oh. HAIR is a great musical. That's amazing. Though oddly it was not a movie from the 80s. But it is the “star maker musical!”  People like Donna Summer, Meatloaf, and Diane Keaton started in HAIR. Yeah, so you're among great company when you have that first on your resume. What is a dream role for you? 

Cartreze Tucker: I was telling someone that I really want something new! I've been really hounding my writer and composer friends to write something for me. I'm trying to be on my Ben Platt EVAN HANSEN moment, so I'm like, “Please just write something for me!” But, if there was one show that I wanted to do before I retire as a tenor, it would be Judas from JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. So, that's my dream role before I decided to become a bass baritone and gave up the tenor life.

Brett Cullum: Wait, how do you do this, Cartreze? Do you just decide, I'm gonna be a bass baritone? Okay, now look, I started as a tenor, and then became a bass, but it wasn't because I chose to; it was because my voice changed.

Cartreze Tucker: Oh, no, my voice has not changed in years. I have a rather high singing voice, but if I sing lower, I just sing lower. Like, I just don't sing higher. I'm like, you know what, I'm not gonna sing high anymore.

Brett Cullum: You are living a charmed life, let me tell you, my friend. 80s movies, natural voice, you can choose where you want to be. 

Cartreze Tucker: I am also beautiful and have talent!  I'm very humble, so…

Brett Cullum: Alright, well, thank you so much, Cartreze. Of course, BACK TO THE FUTURE plays for just a week. This is fast, you guys. 

Cartreze Tucker: Furious, fast and furious.

Brett Cullum: Let’s write you a bass baritone role in FAST AND FURIOUS THE MUSICAL! And then we will just launch right into E.T. THE MUSICAL. It'll be great. We'll make the alien a baritone. Plug that! It's coming to TUTS in 2028. Somebody get us Dan Knechtges on the phone! 

Cartreze Tucker:  But it has to be a highbrow version of E.T. THE MUSICAL. It'll be very, yes, very highbrow, very high intellectual, you know. 

Brett Cullum: You heard it here first! Alright, thank you.