Talk about pageantry at its finest. Back To The Future The Musical opened last night at Shea’s Buffalo Theatre to thunderous applause and crowd excitement. Audience members gathered outside of Shea’s to get their pictures taken with a DeLorean, and the theatre was a buzz of excitement when the show came to an end. What a show! For those who might be skeptical of Hollywood to Broadway fare, fear not, for this show does very well as a stage adaptation.

Back To The Future tells the story of Doc Brown (David Josefsberg) and Marty McFly (Lucas Hallauer). Doc has created a time machine – out of a DeLorean – and on one of the early tests, Doc makes a terrible mistake. The plutonium that is needed to operate the time machine gets too close to his body and causes terrible radiation poisioning. In his attempts to help Doc, Marty gets into the DeLorean and heads to the hospital. Unfortunately, Marty reaches a speed of 88 miles per hour and the time machine takes him back 30 years to 1955. Making sure that the space time continuum isn’t disrupted, Marty must make sure that his parents meet and kiss, otherwise he will never have existed.

Bob Gale – one of the original screenplay writers – creates a book that brings all the highlights from the film to the stage. Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard add the music and lyrics to the show. While many of the songs are not hummable on your way out of the theatre, they do do a nice job telling the story and painting a great picture of the various decades that the story takes place in. “For The Dreamers” is a great number performed by David Josefsberg and “Got No Future” is very well performed by Lucas Hallauer.

Josefsberg’s Doc Brown is extremely entertaining and he makes the character his own, while allowing the audience to see subtle homages to the character created by Christopher Lloyd. 

Hallauer is a fantastic choice for Marty McFly. He has the teenage jovial spirit down pat, and brings a wonderful energy to the character that keeps the story moving forward. 

Mike Bindeman is hilarious as the lovable yet pathetic George McFly. You end up rooting for him, but cringe doing so. Bindeman is great in the role.

Zan Berube is a feisty Lorraine McFly. She possesses all the teenage angst for the role, and makes you laugh and feel uncomfortable all at the same time. She does the part justice.

The design team creates quite the spectacle in this production. It tickles your fancy if you are a fan of the film, and it explodes with enchantment if you are an avid theatre goer. 

John Rando directs a production that is memorable. Putting a DeLorean on the stage will be remembered, just as much as the helicopter in Miss Saigon and the chandiler in Phantom. 

Don’t be stuck in the past, head into the future! Go see this show!

Running Time: 2 Hours 30 Minutes with one 15-minute intermission.

Back To The Future the musical runs until June 29 and is presented at Shea’s Buffalo Theatre. For more information, click here.