What meets the criteria for a ‘great musical’? Good songs, dancing, special effects, actors, plotline, and it needs to be funny; Back To The Future The Musical definitely ticks all these boxes.

The world-renowned, iconic film ‘Back To The Future’ was a box office hit in 1985. In August 2021, it opened on stage in London as a new musical. I was lucky enough to go and see it for myself at the Adelphi Theatre on the 22nd January, and it certainly did not disappoint.

It tells the story of 17-year-old Marty Mcfly, and his eccentric scientist friend Doc Brown, who has built a time machine out of a DeLorean car. However, when an experiment goes wrong, Marty is sent back in time from his present day of 1985, to 1955. He then meets his high-school aged parents, and finds himself in the middle of their love story: he has to make them fall in love again in order not to erase the future Marty and his siblings from existence. 

The musical definitely stands out because of its special effects. It is very difficult to capture time travel and a car driving 88mph on stage, but Back to the Future: The Musical does this very well. A combination of lighting, videography, set design and illusions create a truly mesmerising production which makes you feel like you are really inside the action. The musical also has great costumes, which capture the two time periods perfectly. 

There are some new musical numbers, written by Grammy Award-winners Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard - and on stage they are accompanied by some clever choreography. As well as these, there are some of the iconic songs featured in the movie including ‘The Power of Love’ and ‘Johnny B Goode’. All the actors are very strong vocally, and Rosanna Hyland as Lorraine Bains (Marty’s mother) and Cedric Neal playing Goldie Wilson (the mayor) particularly stood out to me. I spoke to Maya Buchanan, a teenage theatre goer who went to see the musical in early January. She thought “the musical was amazing; a great atmosphere and the actors for each character were casted perfectly!”.

Overall, I would recommend this musical - it was fun, had a great story and impressive special effects. Whether you have seen the original film or not, you should definitely see Back to the Future the Musical, as you will be guaranteed a good time!