by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard (Compact Disc 782.14 Bac)
The original time-travel film Back to the Future came out in 1985, telling the tale of teenager Marty McFly using the massively-altered Delorean gull-wing car-turned-time-machine by his friend, eccentric scientist Doc Emmet Brown, to travel back to 1955. When trapped there, Marty enlists the assistance of the younger Doc Brown to figure out how to refuel the time machine to return himself to 1985. But first, Marty must help his parents to fall in love — his arrival in 1955 caused their original meeting to go off-track — or he and his two siblings will cease to exist.
The original film engendered two
immediate sequels in 1989 and 1990, the first of which threw the characters
forward from 1985 to 2015, and the second cast them back in time to the Old
West. A later animated TV series (2 seasons totally 26 episodes) continued
their story. As early as 2004, producer/writer Bob Gale hinted at a desire to
turn Back to the Future into a stage musical. In 2012, it was announced that
this project was a reality and was aimed for a 2015 premiere (to tie into the
time Marty and Doc traveled to in the 2nd film. Delays pushed this project back
repeatedly, and it finally premiered in the UK in 2021 (with plays to premiere
on Broadway in 2023).
This soundtrack features the cast
of the 2021 British production, including Olly Dobson as Marty McFly, Roger
Bart as Doc Brown, Hugh Coles as George McFly, Rosanna Hyland as Lorraine
Baines, Cedric Neal as Goldie Wilson/Marvin Berry, and Aidan Cutler as Biff
Tannen. The producers’ goals for this musical were to create mostly all-new
songs to retell this popular story. In fact, out of 25 tracks on this CD, only
five feature music associated with the movie — Alan Silvestri’s instrumental
theme (now given lyrics in “It’s Only a Matter of Time”), “The Power of Love”
and “Back in Time” (both pop hits for Huey Lewis from the film’s soundtrack)
and “Earth Angel” and “Johnny B. Goode” (performed at the school dance near the
end of the story). All other tracks are new tunes, collaborations between
original soundtrack composer Silvestri and Glen Ballard. Some are better than
others, but there aren’t any real stinkers. Most major characters get a song
focused on them and their goals. Doc Brown gets several, including “It Works”,
“Future Boy”, “21st Century”, and the marvelous “For the Dreamers”. Marty’s
wishy-washy father George gets “My Myopia” and “Put Your Mind to It”. Marty’s
suprisingly man-hungry mother (as a teenager) gets “Pretty Baby” and “Something
About That Boy”. And, of course, Marty McFly has many moments to shine.
Olly Dobson does a remarkably good
job of recapturing the sound of a young Michael J. Fox as Marty. Hugh Coles is
eerie in recreating the unique voice of Crispin Glover as George McFly, and
both Hyland and Cutler do a good job inhabiting the roles of Lorraine and Biff.
The slight disappointment for me was Roger Bart as Doc. I’ve really enjoyed
Bart’s vocal performances in other musical soundtracks — he’s terrific as
Victor Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein. But he’s very “on again/off again”
as Doc.
None-the-less, despite some
unevenness, I thought that these songs very effectively retold the well-known
plot of the film. A few changes were made — swapping plutonium poising instead
of Libyan terrorists for Doc’s 1985 death, etc. Just like the film, which mixes
genres, this soundtrack bounces between 1950s and 1980s song stylings very
effectively. Overall, Back to the Future: The Musical sounds like it would be a
terrific show. I hope once it premieres here in the U.S. it is a smash success.
Based on descriptions of the technical needs of this show (a flying Delorean
car!), it’s unlikely to be a show feasible for community or high school
theaters to perform, so catch it on Broadway if you can!
(If you enjoy this, obviously, this
is tailored to fans of the original film trilogy. I’d also recommend viewing the
quirky animated series, also available on DVD from the libraries.)
( official Back to the Future:
The Musical web site ) | ( official Alan Silvestri
web site ) | ( Wikipedia entry for Glen Ballard
)
Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service
Have you listened to
this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
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