It’s been a long wait for Back to the Future the musical as the pandemic put paid to anything other than previews at Manchester’s Opera House in March 2020 but Great Scott! has it been worth it. 

The last car I saw fly was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which failed to fly on an opening night and we all had to go back to the Palladium for a re-run.  Something similar happened to Back to the Future when one of its stars Roger Bart as Doc Brown tested positive for covid and an understudy, the redoubtable Mark Oxtoby (now as Strickland), took over for the press performance.  But last night we got to see the producers’ choice Roger Bart as the quirky Doc and he was stupendous.  The DeLorean however worked perfectly and was very impressive with great lighting effects and accessories, including those iconic gull wing doors which open upwards.

Some of the film music is there although many songs have been specially composed by Alan Silvestri, the film’s composer, and Glen Ballard, but the whole show feels to be more of a specialist, spectacular entertainment than a conventional musical.  The song, “It’s Only a Matter of Time” by Alan Silvestri has been set to the film’s original orchestral theme with its stirring chords and Star Wars type inspirational crescendo dominated tune. 

The story sticks pretty much to the film and only Einstein the dog is the missing element but any pooch would have been scared out of its doggy mind by Chris Fisher’s special illusions with sound effects from Gareth Owen.  The show opens with Marty McFly (Olly Dobson) being rejected in an audition but his girlfriend Jennifer (Courtney-Mae Briggs) supports and encourages him in song.  We meet Marty’s father, the feeble and flaky George McFly (Hugh Coles) and realise why the McFly family has its reputation for spineless ineptitude.