The DeLorean can talk, Goldie Wilson has an expanded role and Doc Brown’s backstory will be revealed on stage at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre this month.
“Back to the Future” made two sequels following the original film’s massive success in 1985, but it’s going back to its roots and re-telling the original story in its Bay Area debut of the musical.
Marty McFly, originally played by Michael J. Fox, and Doc, originally played by Christopher Lloyd, will embark on a new adventure when the show plays in San Francisco from Feb. 12 through March 9.
The film’s creators Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis teamed up to create the musical, which officially opened in London in 2021 and has since been seen by more than 800,000 people all over the world.
In London, it broke Adelphi Theatre box office records and won the Best New Musical Olivier Award before it made it to Broadway in 2023, where it won a Broadway World Award for Best New Musical.
Gale sat down with the Bay Area News Group to share his thoughts on creating a musical that sometimes veers off the original script, the most common reaction he’s gotten from die hard “Back to the Future” fans, and how a writer carries on in the shadow of a blockbuster film franchise that’s now 40 years old.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Bob, “Back to the Future” was released in 1985, has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, was called one of the best movies ever by the New York Times and is inarguably a cultural touchstone. So why did it take so long for a “Back to the Future” musical?
Gale: Well, we started working on it in earnest in 2006. What we were up against, it was crazy because we thought exactly that, this is a slam dunk.
When we tried to make the movie, nobody knew what it was. The script was rejected 42 times before it finally got it made. You’re used to that when you do original screenplays.
With this musical, we thought, ‘they ought to be lining up around the block to do this.’ But no, because what we stipulated is that Robert Zemeckis and I (the original co-creators) have to be involved. And Alan Silvestri, who wrote the score, and Glen Ballard, six-time Grammy Award-winner, these guys have to write the music. Then we’d meet with producers who said, ‘what makes you think you guys can do this? You’ve never made a musical before.’
Well, maybe because we made a movie that created a billion dollar franchise.
Q: Eventually you found producer Colin Ingram to help you get this made. Why did you start the musical in the United Kingdom?
Gale: It turns out that the U.K. is per capita the most successful territory for “Back to the Future.” For decades in the U.S., on the day after Thanksgiving, ABC or CBS would run “The Wizard of Oz.” It was a family tradition.
In England, on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, one of the TV networks would always run “Back to the Future.” So we had an audience who was totally primed for it. They knew it inside and out.
Q: Writing the script, did you stay true to the original film?
Gale: We had seen shows that had tried to be a carbon copy of the movie. Our attitude was, ‘if people want to see the movie, they can go see the movie.’ We wanted to preserve the spirit of it and we’re re-telling the story of the first movie, but we wanted to do on stage things we couldn’t do in a movie. And not try to do on stage things we knew we couldn’t do.
Q: What sort of things are different on stage?
Gale: The terrorist chase, we cannot do that on stage. It would be stupid to try to do it. We didn’t. We came up with the idea that Doc collapses from radiation poisoning from handling plutonium, Marty has to jump in the DeLorean to get to a hospital to help save his life. It’s exactly the same dramatical concept but we don’t have a car chase.
The other thing I’m proud of for coming up with is, if you watch the movie, you see the time display. So Doc says, ‘do you want to see the signing of the Declaration of Independence?’ We cut to an insert that says, July 4, 1776. In the musical, I took inspiration from the TV show “Night Rider,” where the car talks. So the DeLorean talks. It’s all voice activated but it only responds to Doc’s voice, which is why Marty can’t get the car started. So instead of seeing it, you hear it.
These are things we did to make sure it still felt like a stage show and nobody walks out thinking, ‘that’s just a mediocre version of the movie.’ No. It has to be special for the stage.
Q: What are some other differences with the musical?
Gale: Doc has a song in Act 2 called “For the Dreamers,” and you learn a lot about who Doc is. And he comes across as a much warmer character than the character in the movie because we have time to do that.
Goldie Wilson – when we made the movie it was a throw away part but people loved him in the movie. We expanded the part and gave him a song and brought him back in Act 2.
Q: What kind of feedback are you hearing from fans of the film?
Gale: I meet people who say, ‘I was afraid to see it because I love the movie so much, and I was afraid seeing this show would ruin my childhood.’ Afterwards they say, ‘I was wrong, you really captured the spirit of the movie and I had a wonderful time.’
We’re not going to ruin your childhood. It’s going to be great.
Q: How much fun did you have recreating the 80s for this musical?
Gale: It was a lot of fun. We made a bus bench with a video rental ad on it. The costumes, too, when I first saw the opening number I was like wow, did we really look like that in the 80s? Yeah, we did. And the volume is turned up a little bit.
Q: In the movie, you had a chance to predict the future 30 years ahead and looking back, you were quite accurate! Hoverboards, phones that can be used to shoot video or to pay for things, drones and tablets — how did you know all of this was coming?
Gale: Some of the stuff was easy to predict. And it’s a lot easier to make these predictions when it’s a comedy. Because they’re not being that serious.
We don’t have those pizza hydrators. I’ve never heard of anyone working on that.
Q: When you make a movie like “Back to the Future” that’s going to follow you for the rest of your career, is it difficult to make anything else, knowing the standard you’ve set for yourself?
Gale: Every writer’s dream is to write something you hope will have a life beyond your own.
I have people coming up to me and they say, ‘this brought me closer together with my parents. I never asked them how they met.’
I met a woman a few weeks ago who said, ‘I became a scientist because I fell in love with Doc Brown.’
John Mayer said, ‘I picked up the guitar because of the Johnny B. Goode scene in Back to the Future.’
You don’t know how a movie can affect people. These anecdotal stories make my head explode. Do I wish I got a couple other movies made after that? Yes. But am I going to be unhappy that I’ll be involved with “Back to the Future” for the rest of my life? Hell no. I thank god every day for it. And I thank Michael J. Fox for saying yes to being in it. If he hadn’t done that, I don’t know if it would’ve happened.
Details: “Back to the Future: The Musical” is playing at BroadwaySF’s Orpheum Theatre at 1192 Market St. in San Francisco from Feb. 12 through March 9; broadwaysf.com.
