Back to the Future: The Musical, which won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 2022, is to have its Australian premiere at the Sydney Lyric Theatre in September.
The production, based on the family-friendly science fiction film Back to the Future (which became the year’s highest-grossing film worldwide following its 1985 release) features a book by Bob Gale, who co-wrote the original film with director Robert Zemeckis.
Music and lyrics, including new songs, are by Emmy and Grammy Award-winning Alan Silvestri (who scored the original film) and six-time Grammy Award-winner Glen Ballard.
The musical also features songs from the film’s original soundtrack, including Huey Lewis and the News’ ‘The Power of Love’ and Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B Goode’.
In Back to the Future (which became a trilogy following the original film’s success) rock ‘n’ roll-loving teenager Marty McFly is accidentally transported back to 1955 in a time-travelling DeLorean, invented by his friend, Dr Emmett Brown. But before he can return to 1985, Marty must make sure his high school-aged parents fall in love in order to save his own existence.
Despite breaking box office records at London’s Adelphi Theatre when the West End production originally opened in 2021 (its season has since been extended until July 2025), Back to the Future: The Musical has not been met with universal acclaim.
Writing for Time Out London, critic Andrzej Lukowski described the musical as ‘bombastic’, ‘arch’ and ‘OTT’ [over the top]’ in his three-star review, adding “it’s entertaining, just a bit much”. In a similarly lukewarm review, The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar called Back to the Future: The Musical “an odd mishmash of originality and imitation”.
After the production opened on Broadway in August 2023, The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck called the musical’s lyrics ‘generic’ and the original songs ‘superfluous’, adding: “Back to the Future: The Musical should more accurately be titled Back to the Past with its slavish adherence to its cinematic inspiration. But when it’s done with this much spirit, it’s hard to complain.”
For Variety, Frank Rizzo wrote: “This musical trip is on auto-pilot with conventional musical tropes and an exposition-crammed narrative that rarely veers from the film,” while also noting the show may appeal to “audiences looking for the comfort of familiar titles and the promise of spectacle”.
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About the Australian production
Back To The Future: The Musical will be produced in Australia by John Frost for Crossroads Live Australia and Colin Ingram for Colin Ingram Ltd, with its Australian premiere supported by the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination New South Wales.
Announcing the musical’s Sydney season, Frost said, “I am thrilled to be bringing Back To The Future: The Musical to Australia, premiering at the Sydney Lyric in September 2025. Australian audiences are going to be blown away to see how this iconic story has been recreated for the stage. Whether a fan of the movies or not, this is a show for everyone, and I can guarantee that you will leave the theatre on an absolute high! We are excited to be partnering with Colin Ingram on the production, and for the support of Destination New South Wales and the NSW Government, which have again guaranteed that Sydney has access to world-class musical theatre.”
Worldwide producer Colin Ingram said, “After playing for four years in London and winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical, opening the production on Broadway, and rolling out the US tour, we are thrilled to be bringing Back To The Future: The Musical to Australia… we look forward to entertaining and thrilling audiences with this moving and spectacular musical version of the much beloved film.”
Bob Gale said, “If Bob Zemeckis and I time-travelled back to 1980 and told our younger selves that the script they were struggling to write would become a West End and Broadway musical now making its way to Sydney, Australia 45 years later, they’d kick us out of their office and call us crazy. Well, sometimes, crazy ideas give birth to great entertainment, and now Bob and I are eager to share our musical vision with Sydney audiences. This musical production has exceeded our original expectations on every level.”
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Back To The Future: The Musical is directed by Tony Award-winner John Rando. Its Tony and Olivier Award-winning design team includes Tim Hatley (set and costume design), Tim Lutkin and Hugh Vanstone (lighting), Gareth Owen (sound) and Finn Ross (video), with choreography by Chris Bailey and illusions by Chris Fisher.
A waitlist is now open for Australian fans to sign up for tickets to Back to the Future: The Musical as soon as they go on sale.
