Review: BACK TO THE FUTURE Rewinds the Clock at Pittsburgh CLO

When people ask me about my strangest gigs as a performer, one of my favorite answers is "professional Michael J. Fox impersonator." On two separate occasions, I have been hired to dress as Marty McFly and sing "Johnny B. Goode" with a live band. Even now, deep into my thirties, this is the role I am recognized for the second most often in my community. Of course, back then, that was all the gig entailed: guest appearance and photo op, "Johnny B. Goode," go home. There was nowhere further you could take it... but now? Not so much. The blockbuster success of Back to the Future the Musical across London, NYC and a national tour proves the people of today hunger for Michael J. Fox content just as much as they did forty years ago.

If you don't know the capsule plot of Back to the Future yet, close this review and go pull it up for streaming, or check TBS (Back to the Future is almost always running on TBS these days). It is greatly to the credit of screenwriter turned librettist Bob Gale that the musical is not entirely slavish in its beat-for-beat recreation of the legendary film; at times, the movie this musical most closely resembles is not Back to the Future, but The Producers. The tone and structure of that movie-turned-musical hangs heavily over BTTF, with its zany physical comedy, its winking, satirical musical numbers and metatheatrical jokes. (There is even a "single character actor playing dozens of cameo and supporting roles with split-second costume changes" (shoutout to comic higlight Luke Anthony Neville), much the same as The Producers, and a tender moment in Act 2 where our second lead gets to sing a heartfelt ballad. And did I mention the showgirls? I haven't seen a musical make such frequent and comical use of old-school showgirls and chorus boys since, well... you get the idea.

The central members of the McFly family play their roles as goofier, and sometimes even more outright cartoonish, than the film's cast, in ways that sometimes veer close to the grotesque. This is ultimately a plus; while the original McFlys were criticized at times for too closely duplicating the delivery and performances of the orignal film cast, these performers have leaned into the musical's goofier, more Mel Brooksian tone. Lucas Hallauer's Marty McFly is sweet-voiced and charming, channeling eighties hearthrobs like Fox alongside a clever Kevin Bacon moment in Act 2, but when he is allowed to squirm, scream, retch or cower, his portrayal truly shines. You can draw a line between him and his father George, played with a zany Jim Carrey-esque physicality by Mike Bindeman. Bindeman can replicate Crispin Glover's oddball energy well enough, but his rubber-limbed and frenetic physicality, which often sees him snap unexpectedly into angular poses, is a magic all his own. As Lorraine, Zan Berube is Sandy, Frenchie and Rizzo in one, bouncing between fifties TV sweetness and positively feral sexuality from one line to the next. (Her I-want song, "Pretty Baby," sounds only mildly suggestive on the album but is delightfully raunchy when staged as a slapstick sexual pursuit of her new crush/time-displaced son.)

Nathaniel Hackmann, the original Broadway Biff, reprises his role for the tour. Biff is a trickier role than you'd think; the fight choreography requirements are pretty extensive, as are the stunt work, slapstick, pratfalls and standard choreo, plus heavy metal style screaming. Hackmann handles all of these with aplomb, and moves between Biff's three "eras" like a comedy pro. It's almost a shame the musical only covers the first film, as I would have loved to see his Future Biff and Trump Biff too. Cartreze Tucker frequently comes close to stealing the show as busboy-turned-politician Goldie Wilson, plus the Little Richard-inspired showman Marvin Berry. But if there's one truly plum role in the show, it's Doc Brown, and David Josefsberg milks it just right. Josefsberg hits a point almost exactly between Christopher Lloyd's wiry intensity as Doc in the film, and Justin Roiland's grouchy torpor as Rick Sanchez (an increasingly-unrelated parody of Doc Brown) in Rick and Morty. All raised eyebrows, unusual phrasings and and sly insinuations, Josefsberg gets most of the best new jokes, including a truly unexpected COVID gag that gets JUST the right kind of groans from the crowd. 

I would be remiss not to talk about the show's true star: not the cast, nor the pleasant (if slightly generic) score by Alan Silvestri and Glenn Ballard, but the tech. I'm not just talking about the DeLorean, which is astonishing; yes, the car flies, everyone knows it, but the way it moves around the stage, spinning rapidly and interacting with multiple layers of set, projection and performer. I'm talking about the way the car, the turntable, the LED wall, the projection mapping and even the props intersect with the actors onstage in increasingly unexpected ways. There's a brilliant sight gag in Act 2 where Doc Brown runs up a multi-level fire-escape by jogging in place as the projection mapping moves around him, and an incredible chase sequence at the end of Act 1 that puts Some Like It Hot to shame. Some may say spectacle is a low form of art, and even diminishes the art around it, but I've never been that kind of fuddy-duddy. I love magic as an art of its own, and the stage magic in this show elevates the material around it.

Moment after moment in this musical elicited cheers from the audience, whether it was a big song, an unexpected stunt or sight gag, a magic trick, an astonishing vocal (mostly from Cartreze Tucker) or simply a satisfying story beat. As corny as some people might find it, I love when a simple plot element is enough to get people cheering or applauding- a hug, a big kiss, a reunion, a character's success or sudden moment of growth. Theatre isn't the movies: the cast can hear us and our response fuels them. The interplay between audience and artists is the TRUE flux capacitor at the heart of this show, sending us all back to 1985 for one day of summer vacation.