By Now, I’m no expert on Broadway musicals, but when I saw that Back to the Future was in talks to head to Broadway, I just HAD to snatch it up. Apparently, Robert Zemeckis (recently of dead-eyed-3D-animation fame) is working with his old writing partner, Bob Gale (recently of Back to the Future: The Game fame… oh wait, that sucked. HARD) on a Back to the Future musical. Thankfully, they’re also recruiting Alan Silvestri, the composer of the original trilogy’s score (and many other Zemeckis films). No word yet on whether they’ll draft Huey Lewis to rework his renditions of “Power of Love” or “Back in Time” from the first movie. Also no word on whether they’ll be adapting the whole trilogy or just the first movie, but I’m thinking they might do this in sequels, which would be an interesting turn of events because you never hear of sequels to musicals.
At first the idea of a Back to the Future musical seems like a complete bastardization of franchise, but thinking about it, the idea might just have some merit. Despite the comedic nature of the video posted below the jump, I believe one can take it as proof that a Back to the Future musical can in fact work. For one thing, the story is just so simple and iconic. No one can be confused while watching Back to the Future, so the plot can be easily relayed to people while musical numbers ensue.
Besides that, the scenes and cinematics in the films are just so intense that they just scream for songs to be sung during them. Marty driving the Delorean back to 1955, Marty riding on the skateboard to get away from Biff, George fighting Biff, Marty singing Johnny B. Good, Doc trying to reconnect the cable at the clock tower… They already have a lot to work with. I’m very curious about what lyrics they could possibly think up for these scenes (except, I guess, the Johnny B. Good scene?). I imagine they’ll play up the awkward vibe between Marty and Lorraine. Overall, I’m expecting a much funnier rendition of Back to the Future… played along to songs.
[Via IndieWire, YouTube]