Not only happening but it's a proper official effort with Zemeckis involved and tickets go on sale this Friday. It will enjoy a 12 week run at the Manchester Opera House from February 2020 before moving to London.
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Not only happening but it's a proper official effort with Zemeckis involved and tickets go on sale this Friday. It will enjoy a 12 week run at the Manchester Opera House from February 2020 before moving to London. -
I know it makes me a pedant, but I watched this trailer and all I could see was "Marty" wearing Vans trainers. Wrong!
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Also, no strings on the guitar.Comment
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Shows are now up with multiple already selling out in the first hour. Just found out the missus has booked us in. Great Scott!Comment
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Yeah, but Vans?Comment
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I won't be able to tell from up here
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Headed to see this tomorrow, very curious as to how it turns out
Bob Gale says the studios are always asking him to work on Back to the Future: Part IV but he still insists that there will never be another film saying "You don't sell your kids into prostitution"Comment
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Oh man, wait until that guy hears about this place called Hollywood.Comment
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I love Back to the Future. However I do not feel I would gain anything from seeing it performed on stage. From the team involved I'm sure it'll be well done, it's just...yeah. Not something I need.Comment
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I'm going to be a little vague in cae anyone goes to see this themselves as whilst there isn't much in terms of spoiler it's still good to see some stuff first hand.
This was.... really well done. I'll break down by the key components:
The Actors
Pretty much all of them do a really good job of reflecting the original films characters and the performances in the film. Marty and Doc are solidly done, sometimes sliding out of sounding like Fox and Lloyd but quickly back in. The timing of the lines is pretty on point as well, everyone seems to have done a good job of learning and emulating the original performances but special shout out goes to the actor playing George McFly who turns in a god like flawless performance where short of seeing a direct view of his facial features you could swear blind you were watching Crispin Glover on stage.
The Songs
You have all the songs from the film with added original material. There's a song about George's spying obsession with Lorraine which is decent as well as one about what motivates Doc to be an inventor despite his many failures that are the main standouts with everything else being fairly just okay but nothing is so bad as to take you out of the experience. The closest comes from the opening of the second act which is a real WTF moment but it quickly bounces back from it.
The Story
It literally is the film, there are some nips and tucks which are made to accommodate the songs but they're small moments that don't leave you feeling like anything key has been missed. With so much of the first film revolving around Marty and his parents it means it's a much easier film than the sequels to fit to a stage setting. The only real change is the removal of the Libyans from the early DeLorean sequence, radiation poisoning takes its place and it's not a very good replacement but is so small a moment it doesn't matter much.
The Effects
The trickiest part of the show, there are three areas that immediately spring to mind that feel difficult to adapt. The first is scale, whilst most sequences can use small pyrotechnics or props some a limited in options once such being the lightning storm clock tower sequence. So, effectively for scene changes etc the stage is made up of six layered sections. On the very far back they've set up a huge video screen and up at the very front is a transparent projection screen that can be lowered as well with light displays on top and at the sides with the live orchestra visible from the top as they sit beneath the stage. The stage has multiple rails with many props rolled out on these rails but also built in is a huge turntable allowing for revolving and axis movement at once which is also key. They have some fun with the video use like a cheeky scene with Doc fake climbing stairs but they solve the clock tower scene with Doc hanging off the face by projecting the tower building onto the back wall, doc then stands on a black box with a model of the clock and statues near the front of the stage whilst the rain, lightning and some animated scenery such as collapsing masonry is projected onto the front screen in front of him creating an optical illusion that was impressively convincing including the zip wire moment.
Then there's the second difficult aspect, the car. You have a full scale replica of the car but the issue is the 88mph sequences. They mix rear and front video effects with stage lighting and then move the car slowly left and right as well as front and back whilst revolving the stage as necessary and its also very convincing of a car racing at high speed despite being locked to a small stage moving slowly in reality. They use side movement with stage rotation to emulate the car drifting as well which looks spot on meaning the films entire climax plays out just like the film and works flawlessly.
The last is the big one, the films closing scene. At this point it's needless to say, they pull it off and the audience went absolutely nuts when it happened.
It's hard to come up with many issues, you'd have to dislike the film to dislike the musical to be honest as it's so close. A really successful adaptation throughout.Comment
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"We're going back, Marty"
"Back where, Doc?"
"Back to the stage, 21 May in London to be precise"
"Heavy man"Comment
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Turns out the soundtrack is outComment
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