‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’: Casey Likes. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL
Based on the Universal Pictures/Amblin Entertainment Film
Written by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale
Book by Bob Gale
Music & lyrics by Alan Silvestri & Glen Ballard
Directed by John Rando
Winter Garden Theatre
1634 Broadway
https://www.backtothefuturemusical.com/new-york/

By David NouNou

Having seen Back to The Future last year in London, I have to concede that this version is far superior to the British production. Reason being that other than Roger Bart playing Doc Brown, an American actor, the rest of cast were all British, with the most abominable American accents. In addition, the actor playing Marty McFly was way too old for the role, thus making the part cringeworthy.

You all know the plot, here’s a recap: Set in a small California town in 1985, 17-year-old Marty McFly (Casey Likes), in an experiment travels through time in a modified DeLorean car created by his eccentric friend, Doc Brown (Roger Bart) where he ends up in 1955 encountering young versions of his parents, before they were married. His mother Lorraine Baines (Liana Hunt) has the hots for Marty when she first meets him and thinks his name is Calvin Klein because of the underwear he’s wearing, and his father is a nerdy highschooler George McFly (Hugh Coles) who is constantly being picked on and tormented by Biff Tannen (Nathaniel Hackmann), the town bully. Marty has to make sure that George and Lorraine fall in love and kiss at a designated time, or he and his siblings shall cease to exist. More daunting, Marty has to return to his own time and save the life of Doc Brown.

The plot is simple and the cast is minimal. It follows the premise of the movie; however, most of the charm and innocence of the piece is gone. Instead, it is loud and all over the place. Substance has been replaced with needless and uninspired dance numbers.

The book by Bob Gale is clever enough to keep it afloat. The score at best tries to stay in the mood of the 50s and 80s but is not particularly memorable. Although the musical is created and directed by Americans, it was originally presented in London. What’s amazing about British musicals is when creating material that is English in nature, from Six to & Juliet, they can be brilliant, but when they try to create American-themed musicals, they somehow miss the mark by overindulgence to play for an American audience—as if to say bigger is better.

The cast, headed by Roger Bart, as Doc Brown, has mercifully toned down his performance a lot. Doc Brown is a brilliant but eccentric scientist. In London, Mr. Bart portrayed him as a manic lunatic. His performance is much better and more genuine now. If you follow the performance, he now seems to channel Robin Williams which is a much more pleasant experience. Casey Likes—who last fall played William in the short-lived musical version of Almost Famous— now plays Marty McFly. He is age appropriate and rather likeable.

The best part of the show is the English holdover, Hugh Coles. He was great as George McFly in London; he is even better now on Broadway.

To be sure, as long as tourists keep coming to New York, Back to the Future will be their favorite staple and can keep it running well into the future.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published August 11, 2023
Reviewed at August 10, 2023 press performance.

‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’: Roger Bart & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’ (left to right): Daryl Tofa, Nathaniel Hackmann, Will Branner, Casey Likes & Hugh Coles. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’: Jelani Remy & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’: Casey Likes & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’: Casey Likes. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

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‘BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL’: Olly Dobson. Photo: Sean Ebsworth Barnes.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL
Book by Bob Gale
Music & lyrics by Alan Silvestri & Glen Ballard
Directed by John Rando
Adelphi Theatre
The Strand
London, United Kingdom
https://www.backtothefuturemusical.com/london/

By David NouNou

LONDON—Broadway, Lunt-Fontanne, Lyric, Marquis or St. James Theatres—be on the alert because one of you will be housing this giant pinball machine of a musical when it crosses the Atlantic.

You all know the plot, here’s a recap: Set in a small California town in the 1980s, 17-year-old Marty McFly (Will Haswell), in an experiment, travels through time in a modified DeLorean car created by his eccentric friend, Doc Brown (Roger Bart) where he ends up in the 1950s encountering young versions of his parents, before they were married. His mother Lorraine Baines (Katherine Pearson) has the hots for Marty when she first meets him and thinks his name is Calvin Klein because of the underwear he’s wearing. His father is a nerdy high-schooler George McFly (Hugh Coles) who is constantly being picked on and tormented by Biff Tannen (Aiden Cutler), the town bully. Marty has to make sure that George and Lorraine fall in love and kiss at a designated time, or he shall cease to exist. More daunting, Marty has to return to his own time and save the life of Doc Brown.

The plot is simple and the cast is minimal. It follows the premise of the movie, but all the charm and innocence of the piece have been sucked out of it. As you enter the enormous Adelphi lobby, you will be assaulted by every sort of Universal Studio merchandizing and display stands. Once you get inside the theatre, you are in a maze of red and green neon tubings resembling the maze in the 1982 Disney movie, Tron. Don’t get excited; it’s more for effect than substance.

The score at best is mediocre and unmemorable. What amazes me about British musicals is when creating material that is English in nature, Six or & Juliet, they can be brilliant, but when they try to create American-themed musicals, they totally miss the mark. The mugging and carrying-on by the cast and their idea of how Americans behave is a stereotype that would insult The Simpsons. Where is John Rando, a prominent musical director, when all this tomfoolery is going on? Also, why is the guy playing Marty McFly as a 17-year-old so old?

The worst is yet to come. Roger Bart, a prominent Tony-winning American actor for the 1999 revival of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown as Doc Brown gives what might be considered one of the worst manic, unhinged performances in modern times. Doc Brown is a brilliant but eccentric scientist, but Mr. Bart portrays him as a crazy lunatic. We attended a Thursday matinee that was subsidized by about 300 9-to 12-year-old boy students. The more outrageous Mr. Bart became, the more gregarious the boys became. By the end they were both out of control. By the time the special effects come in at the end— I’ll leave that as a surprise for you—all hell broke loose.

Whichever of the five theatres I’ve mentioned earlier that will house Back to the Future: The Musical, set designer Tim Hatley and sound designer Gareth Owen will have a grand old time making it over. TILT.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published July 17, 2022
Reviewed in London on June 16, 2022.

‘BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL’: Roger Bart. Photo: Sean Ebsworth Barnes.

‘BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL’: Marquee at the Adelphi Theatre in London. Photo: StageZine.

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‘DISASTER!’: Roger Bart & Kerry Butler. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

DISASTER!
By Seth Rudetsky & Jack Plotnick
Choreographed by JoAnn M. Hunter
Directed by Jack Plotnick
Nederlander Theatre
208 West 41st Street
(877) 250-2929, http://www.disastermusical.com/

By Scott Harrah

The 1970s disaster movie genre could easily be mined for a spoof. From The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, created by the “Master of Disaster” Irwin Allen to Earthquake and the many Airport films, the movies were so over-the-top with their special effects, soapy subplots and all-star casts and cameos that they sometimes seemed like parodies themselves. So it is puzzling why Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick took such a great topic for a satire and did so little with it in Disaster!

Back in 1980, Airplane! hilariously roasted the Airport franchise with slapstick humor that skewered everything about the movies, with visual and sight gags and raunchy jokes. The movie was a mega-hit because it was silly and clever while sending up the plots of not only Airport and Airport 1975 but also the 1957 film Zero Hour. Here, Mr. Rudetsky and Mr. Plotnick have taken plot elements from Earthquake, The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure and set the scene in 1979 on Barracuda, a floating disco/casino on the Hudson River, with characters loosely based on those in the movies it mocks, but with no quick-witted humor or anything truly ingenious. Instead, the creators insert snippets of old 1970s pop radio standards like “Knock on Wood,” “Sky High,” “I Am Woman,” “Hot Stuff,” “Torn Between Two Lovers” and more ad nauseam, for no apparent reason other than to pad out an already overlong show. The result is many strained laughs in a jukebox musical without much context, like watching one of those kitschy old K-Tel pop music compilations come to life on the stage. Instead of giving us a solid plot and exquisitely jabbing the satirical needle into the genre, Mr. Rudetsky and director Jack Plotnick give us a lazy series of lame, half-baked skits that aren’t funny and serve no purpose.

We have many of the characters from a pastiche of 1970s disaster films, but few are well-developed composites of the people from the wonderfully tacky epics of yesteryear.

There are many Tony-nominated and Tony-winning stage veterans in the show, but their talents are mostly wasted on the thin material. Roger Bart annoyingly hams it up as Tony, the sleazy owner of the casino. Faith Prince and Kevin Chamberlin portray Shirley and Maury, a wisecracking New York Jewish couple obviously modeled after Shelley Winters and Jack Albertson in The Poseidon Adventure. Kerry Butler is Marianne, a reporter and the ex-fiancee of waiter Chad (Adam Pascal). Rachel York plays Jackie, a sexy lounge singer that’s obviously a cross between Carole Lynley’s Nonnie and Stella Stevens’ Linda Rogo in Poseidon. .

Max Crumm (best known for the 2007 Grease revival with Laura Osnes) plays Scott, a waiter, a nod to Roddy McDowell’s character Acres in Poseidon. Newcomer Lacretta Nicole is Levora, the spandex-clad, African-American disco diva who hasn’t had a hit in a while, and her main purpose here seems to be to belt out disco golden oldies like “Never Can Say Goodbye.” Mr. Rudetsky himself plays Professor Ted Schneider, the “disaster expert” who is hell bent on warning everyone about the doom that awaits them because the casino’s structure was built on a fault line (a Manhattan pier).

The true standout performances in the show, however, are given by lesser-known actors. Young Baylee Littrell is outstanding in the dual role of Ben and Lisa, singer Jackie’s identical twins. Jennifer Simard is a total scene stealer as Sister Mary Downy, a nun with a gambling addiction who loves to strum her guitar and screech out an atonal version of Sister Janet Mead’s infamous 1974 rock rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer.” The first-rate Ms. Simard displays the perfect mix of piety and spunk—a glorious homage to Helen Reddy’s singing nun in Airport 1975—and she gets the show’s most sincere and well-deserved laughs.

Disaster! is disappointing because of what it could have been. It started out Off Broadway at the St. Luke’s Theatre three years ago, but the Broadway production should have been more polished. Co-author Jack Plotnick also directs the show, and that is a problem here because an objective party was desperately needed to fine-tune things. In many cases, there should be a law on Broadway that writers of shows should not be allowed to also direct their works, because a more focused director and script doctor might have been able to save this Disaster! from sinking by cutting out the many pointless song snippets, tightening the narrative, and keeping the jokes on-target.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 15, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on March 14, 2016

DISASTER!: (left to right) Faith Prince, Kevin Chamberlin & Kerry Butler. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

‘DISASTER!’ Jennifer Simard as nun Sister Mary Downy. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

DISASTER!: Adam Pascal & Kerry Butler. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

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