• バックトゥザフューチャー (Back to the Future the Musical)

3/29/26 (Sun), Tokyo

I didn’t bother to see this in London or New York, wary as always about another movie-to-musical adaptation. But a friend had an extra ticket to this sold-out Japanese-language production, and I had heard good things about the staging, handled here as on the West End/Broadway by John Rando. As usual for productions by the giant Gekidan Shiki theatrical group, I saw no children at all at this family-oriented show. Families are crowded out by the avid Shiki fans, for better or worse.

The show itself is just the movie on stage with some mediocre songs thrown on top in all the predictable places. As with Pretty Woman, they kept the far superior songs from the film, in this case two songs by Huey Lewis (including “The Power of Love” – I wonder why they didn’t ask him to write the score) and two classic 50s pieces (“Earth Angel” and the anachronistic “Johnny B. Goode”). The recycling of these songs is just a sop to the movie’s fans, showing either a lack of imagination or laziness. It makes this a derivative of the film rather than a work in its own right.

That’s true of the book as well, which, written by the film’s screenwriter, sticks closely to its source. That’s not smart at times – for instance, the climactic scene where Marty’s father finds Biff in the car, which used a simple bench, could have been more visually consistent if reset to a park bench or such. The story is appealing enough to cover some of the gaps, but nothing on stage made a case for why a musical version was necessary in the first place.

The staging was pretty awesome, making up to an extent for the weak material. I’m glad they avoided the masturbation scene up in the tree that my friend described from Broadway; best to keep this to family-friendly level. There was creative use of video, especially when the car was racing through the streets, and Doc’s climb in the rain up to the tower, shown through the curtains, was thrilling. The show boasted expertly executed stage effects in which actors (using stage doubles) would pop seamlessly into the next scene.

The only big downer was the flying car at the end. Impressive as it was, it overpowered the heartwarming story, which had wrapped up nicely at that point. It showed a lack of confidence in the material (and must have been a budget-buster – no wonder the show was mired in the red on Broadway). Once something like that becomes a symbol of the show, they can’t get rid of it, which must make touring difficult. They’ll need an overhaul like the revised Miss Saigon with its newly virtual helicopter to make it profitable.

The acting was fine, especially Risu Naoto as an energetic Marty and the female chorus, totally convincing as sexy US teenagers. Shiki apparently held auditions for this show rather than rely as usual on its in-house group, maybe at the insistence of the US team. But in any case, they did a fine job overall.

The costly show managed a lucrative 4.5-year run in London (it’s closing next month) and a loss-making two-year run in New York, and it’s been a big success here for Shiki. At least it made more of a case for a staging than the truly sad Pretty Woman, but that’s pretty faint praise. They’re not creating something new as much as milking something old, which I find sad. Still, everyone seemed to be enjoying it, and Rando’s staging, if overheated, was undeniably crowd-pleasing. A pleasant enough night out for brainless fun.