Here Comes That Back To The Future Stage Musical You’ve Been Dreaming Of

The Broadway musical has proven to be one of Hollywood’s most surprisingly popular spin-off products of the last decade or so, with a golden example being The Lion King. Not only did that production prove to be the most lucrative, it’s also an example of an adaptation that’s artistically strong, and I would argue stronger than the original animated movie.

And the process can also fold back onto itself, as with Hairspray and The Producers, each of which started as a film, was then adapted into a stage show, and finally re-adapted back into a musical movie.

Next up to move along to step two in this curious mutation could be Back to the Future. Deadline report that Robert Zemeckis has had some early meetings with Bob Gale, his co-writer on the film, as well as composer Alan Silvestri, discussing the possibility of re-imagining their work for the stage.

I understand why it seems like the time is right. The film was given another run in cinemas, ahead of its Blu-ray release, and did very well on both fronts; also, the best selling show on Broadway right now is Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which would seem to have a large cross-over of potential audience.

I’m not saying that there couldn’t be a great Back to the Future musical, but I sure as heck can’t picture it just now, at least outside of the already musical moments in the film, like the band tryouts and the Fish Enchantment Under The Sea Dance.

Another successful subsidiary of the motion picture experience has been the theme park ride and, until Universal confusingly scrapped it, they had one of the best in the Back to the Future spin-off. I think I’d maybe rather see that come back, rather than a musical – and I love musicals.

Either way, I think Zemeckis knows what he’s doing, and I trust him. If he stays involved and moves ahead with this, it’ll be because he sees something of actual value in it.

Talking of which (ahem) here’s a video showing a previous, low-budget and probably unlicensed stage production based on the film. It’s not quite Max Fischer quality.