primeideal

I had read a few reviews of "Back to the Future: the musical" when it opened on Broadway, and the reviews boiled down to: 1. the DeLorean is great, 2. they tried really hard to stay faithful to the movie and not cut anything important, but they also added a bunch of songs, so it's lengthy, 3. reviewer didn't care much for the movie because it didn't flatter their preconceptions, and the musical isn't any better, we have to be more edgy instead of just nostalgia bait. I figured 2 and 3 would not be big drawbacks for me, and it was in Baltimore, so sure.

It was...fine? I didn't dislike it in an "didn't flatter my ideological preconceptions" way, but the intro felt rushed (trying to establish Marty's siblings as characters, over-the-top hamming, etc.) This is just based on the original movie, not the sequels.

Anyway, here are some things that I think they could have done differently, especially because it's an adaptation. I'm not sure I'd necessarily enjoy all of these, just things that might be interesting to try.

Arguably the relationship at the core of the movie is Marty & Doc's friendship! Let them sing a duet together!
The character of Jennifer (Marty's girlfriend) could easily be cut. At the end of the movie it's like "come quick, your kids are in trouble!" and then that actress didn't want to do the sequels, so they just...awkwardly wrote her out. Jennifer in the musical doesn't do anything useful either.
I understand that we kind of need Marty's siblings to set up the photo as a symbol of temporal paradoxing, but again, they just showed up in the intro song to establish one-note characterizations, then were different in the alternate timeline of the ending. I feel like the first few scenes in 1985 could have been more streamlined/less ludicrous "And Now We Are Breaking Into Song" moments.
Doc has a song called "For the Dreamers," where he talks about his scientific heroes--he has pictures of Edison and EInstein on his wall, etc. But he's also like "yeah, some people fail a thousand times before they get it right, some people just...fail a thousand times." IDK, I kind of like the idea, but the execution of "the people who weren't successes matter too" could have been better.
The lampshading of "don't tell me about the future, I don't want to know, don't create a paradox" being resolved with "oh what the hell" is underwhelming plotwise. Maybe an adaptation where Doc actually dies? Or instead of Marty getting the message to him, someone like Mayor Wilson or Biff inadvertently changes the future based on Marty's meddling?
Sometimes people interpret the ending as fridge horror--Marty is the only person who remembers his original timeline, his family can't understand why he's not "their" Marty, etc. What if instead it doesn't change, but Marty is like, "hey, Dad, did you ever write science fiction books?" or something. Then we learn that George has been keeping up his hobby the whole time, he's just too embarrassed to share it with anyone, but Marty gives him a nudge to be a little more assertive in the future?
My mom's review of Wicked when we first saw it in 2008 was "this is going to be the best high school musical because both the lead roles are women and there are so many more girls than boys of high school age who want to do musical theater." What about always-a-girl AU for Marty and Doc? I like the idea of eccentric spinster Emily Brown still going by "Doc," but facing a little more side-eying/social awkwardness in Hill Valley. Is the love triangle different with girl!Marty in 1955? Does Biff flirt with her and get out of Lorraine's way? Is her alias "Victoria Secret" instead of "Calvin Klein"? :D

Enter your cut contents here.The DeLorean does get a show-stealing moment, but it takes a while ;)