By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO — Sometimes a play transports you back in time to another era, and this is especially true for Broadway San Diego’s Back to the Future. The play is literally about time travel, and those who were around in 1985 when the movie starring Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd came out will especially feel nostalgic.
For those who don’t remember or didn’t see the 1985 classic movie, the story is about a high school senior Marty McFly (Caden Brauch) whose mad-scientist friend Doc Brown (Don Stephenson) turns a DeLorean into a Time Machine. Marty accidentally gets sent back to 1955 whereby a set of mishaps he almost creates a time rift where his parents don’t meet, thereby threatening his own existence. With the clock ticking, Marty must get his parents back on track to meet and fall in love before he is erased. Chaos and hilarity ensue.
This play has some amazingly crazy special effects and would not have been possible to stage in actual 1985. They make good use of multiple LED screens and projections to create a very tech heavy multi-dimensional performance.
The show is fast-paced and funny with a lot of wink, wink, nudge, nudge kind of humor and references to pop culture. For example, in one scene Marty is fighting someone with a bar that looks very much like a light saber and even quotes the famous “I am your father” line from Star Wars. In another there’s a reference to the 1985 cult classic movie Weird Science. The accentuated physical comedy kept the laughs flowing.
Other than the hit songs that were in the movie like “Johnny B Goode” and “The Power of Love,” the songs written specifically for the play, while moving the action forward, were not very memorable.
My favorite scene was when Marty went back in time and met his teenage mother Lorraine (Zan Berube). Not knowing he is her future son, she came on to him pretty strongly. The scene, while making you cringe, is well played and funny.
Shout outs go to Dan Horn as the bully Biff; Cartreze Tucker as Goldie Wilson; and Jenny Dalrymple as the energetic “clocktower woman”.
All-in-all it’s a fun show for the whole family and gen Xers will enjoy revisiting their youth along with their gen Z children.
Back to the Future is only in town for a short time, wrapping on Sunday night, so get in while it’s still here… unless you have a Time Machine too of course. For ticket information, click here.
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Sandi Masori is a theater and food reviewer for San Diego Jewish World