In addition to being a film score fan, I also am a huge fan of Broadway musicals. I wanted to focus on something I noticed as my worlds collided with Back to the Future: The Musical.
Adapting films into stage musicals isn't a new fad, but it's definitely been seen more in recent seasons. For most properties, it's all about the name recognition, predefined characters and built in fanbase.
Originally, shows used to change names (The Apartment became Promises, Promises, Smiles of a Summer Night became A Little Night Music, etc). Then there are the adaptations that feature an iconic song from the film (sometimes by contract, sometimes for fan expectation): "Springtime for Hitler" had to be in The Producers, "Day-O" happens in Beetlejuice the Musical, Rocky the Musical used both "Eye of the Tiger" and "Gonna Fly Now" as montage music, and Shrek the Musical added "I'm a Believer" after the show opened.
But in the years of musical adaptations, I can't think of many other examples where the film songs are heard AND you also hear snippets of the film's score. The new songs were written by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard. For films they've collaborated on songs for The Polar Express, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol, The Croods and Pinocchio. Included in the musical are songs from the film - "Earth Angel", "Johnny B. Goode". They also decided on using the iconic Huey Lewis songs "Power of Love" and "Back in Time". Since Silvestri himself was involved, it makes sense to include moments from his iconic film score.
Using the Original London Cast Recording, "Overture" is an abridged version of the film's 'overture' cue. The main film theme is also the melody to the chorus of "It's Only A Matter of Time". The theme gets a thrilling statement in "Don't Drive 88!" which hardly sounds like a typical Broadway score during the time travel sequence. "The Letter" features almost an exact copy of the same film cue. "The Clocktower" underscore sequence follows much of the film score, including Doc's theme and many other bits of Silvestri's iconic action cue. "Doc Returns" continues the film score almost exactly until a reprise of "It's Only A Matter of Time".
Underscoring dialogue and scene changes are common in musicals, but it's interesting just how much was used from the film score. Utilizing the film's music is more akin to theme park shows as Variety pointed out in their review: "Back to the Future will seem more fitting for a theme park than Broadway." It will be interesting to see if other shows follow this trend if they follow a very faithful adaptation to the stage.
Back to the Future the Musical opened in London's Adelphi Theatre in September 2021 and opened in Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre August 2023.
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| Alan Silvestri, Bob Gale, Glen Ballard |
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