On Dec. 10, the National Touring Company presented the opening night of “Back To The Future: The Musical” at the Paramount Theater in Seattle.
The beginning of the show felt a bit slow and focused on Marty McFly (Caden Brauch) and his dreams for the future. Around the fourth song, the musical starts picking up pace when Marty goes back in time to 1955.
Unfortunately, the vocals did lack the potential that could have made the already entertaining show have more emotion to bring it to life. While the actors were talented singers, their voices weren’t exactly the right fit for these particular songs. Doc Brown (Don Stephenson), had vocals too soft for the bold songs that he was singing, making it difficult to understand him. The best vocals in the show were Lorraine Baines (Zan Berube), who played Marty’s mother and Goldie Wilson (Cartreze Tucker), the mayor of the town. Berube’s singing was full of emotion and perfect for her character, while Tucker’s projection of his voice was amazing while also being able to hit every note. Other than the songs, the instrumentals were great, especially the electric guitar solo of “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry, played by Greg Fulton for the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance scene.
From the set of Hill Valley High School to the DeLorean time machine, the set design was extremely creative and high-tech. The show used many screens to make it seem like the car was driving down roads at 80 mph, making it feel as if the audience was on a thriller ride in a theme park. Each scene in the show had amazingly detailed aspects, down to the littlest cup of water, making it feel like you’re in the moment. A bothersome aspect of the set was how many bright, flashing lights there were, blinding the audience during those particular scenes.
However, in the last 10 minutes of the show, there were technical difficulties with the transportation of the DeLorean. What was originally a five-minute stop time soon turned into a 40-plus minute delay, causing many people to leave early. Eventually, the production did skip the part that hadn’t been working and finished the musical with smooth sailing from there, even showing off how the DeLorean could even fly and levitate off the ground towards the end of the musical.
Because of the technical difficulties, the original viewing time of two and a half hours became around a four-hour production. The “Back To The Future” musical is known for having some type of mishap almost every time it is put on. This is such a recurring problem for the production crew that there is even a sign in big letters plastered across saying “Please stand by while we adjust the space-time continuum.”
This production is very good and has been in different theaters, but the Paramount opening night was a bit disappointing. Sadly, the Broadway production of “Back To The Future” will be having its last hurrah in Jan. 2025. The show will be playing through the Dec. 22 at the Paramount and hopefully will have better luck in the future.
