40 years after “Back to the Future” first hit cinemas, co-creator Bob Gale still can’t quite believe where the story has taken him.
“When we made the movie, we had no idea whether anybody was even going to go see it,” he tells Variety AU/NZ. “I was walking across the Pyrmont Bridge and I just started laughing, because I’m looking out at beautiful Sydney, Australia, and I’m thinking, ‘My god, this crazy idea I had 45 years ago has led me to here.'”
Gale co-wrote the iconic 1985 film with Robert Zemeckis, and he also co-created “Back to the Future: The Musical,” which made its Australian premiere at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre last week. The production marks the next stop of a story that’s proved to still resonate so deeply four decades on.
As for why it still speaks to audiences? Gale breaks it down into one central theme: family.
“Time travel is an element of it, but it’s not a pure time travel story. Sure, ‘Back to the Future Part II’ is much more about the time travel, but ‘Part I’ is just a human story, it’s a love story, it’s a male bonding story. It’s the humanity of that, that makes it transcend the trappings.”
That universal theme has allowed the franchise to thrive in new forms, he argues. “Everyone can connect to it. No matter where you were born, when you were born, who you are, what culture.”
“Back to the Future: The Musical” first opened in February 2020 at the Manchester Opera House, but was quickly cancelled due to COVID. Once theatres in London opened back up, the show resumed in August 2021 at the Adelphi Theatre, where it continues to run today. The Olivier Award-winning musical was then taken to Broadway in August 2023, before embarking on a North American tour, which is now in its second year. Soon, it will open in Japan and Germany, as well as on board Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas cruise ship.
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“It’s unbelievable,” Gale reflects.
For newcomer Axel Duffy, whose performance as Marty McFly on opening night was nothing short of spectacular, having such a blockbuster show land in Australia feels like “a real step forward in this industry.”
“I don’t think we’ve seen anything quite like this in Australia,” he tells Variety AU/NZ. “It’s a mammoth of a show and we’re doing stuff I don’t think Australian audiences have seen. To have an Australian version be its own individual thing, with a 98% Australian cast, it’s really putting a spotlight on our talent and creatives and showing what we’re capable of here.”
The pressure was on the 23-year-old to bring his spin on the character once played by Michael J. Fox. Balancing inspiration from Fox with his own quirks was a learning curve, Duffy says.
“He’s such a beloved character, and he [Fox] created such an icon with the role. I think the fact that I get to walk out in a puffer vest and the aviators, that does a lot for me. I get to kind of take advantage of the goodwill that he’s brought millions and millions of fans, and it’s exciting to be a little part of that legacy, and carry on what he did, while trying to figure it out on my own.”
Gale says Fox has seen the show on Broadway, and “he absolutely loved it”, especially that it breathes new life into the franchise.
“We don’t want to do ‘Back to the Future Part IV’ without Michael J. Fox, right,” Gale says. “So this has been a different way to revisit the material, and Michael really enjoyed and supported it. Christopher Lloyd [who played Dr Emmett Brown, or Doc, in the film] has seen it in London two or three times, he saw it on Broadway, saw it in LA, he’s going to see it in Japan later this year, he loves it too.”
Duffy stars in the production alongside Tony Award-winning Roger Bart, who originated the role of Doc on the West End and later reprised it on Broadway. It was such a pinch-me moment for the young gun, working with the man he jokingly described as “Hercules”.
“Every night I get a front row ticket to one of the coolest shows I’ve ever seen,” Duffy explains. “And it’s unbelievable, we’re so lucky to have him here for Australian audiences to see the work he does, and for the rest of us to learn from him and get to experience why he’s a legend. The scope he can find within a character and the reality he can find, I think is something I’ve never seen before and will strive for, for the rest of my life.”
For Gale, bringing Bart Down Under to reprise the role once again was a no brainer. “Roger was the first person we cast,” he says. “Even before we had the right director. He’s so talented, and he brought so much not just to his part but to the musical itself. There are jokes in the show that came straight from his head.”
As Duffy settles into McFly’s shoes, and Gale watches his creation continue to light up new stages around the world, both seem the share the same sense of disbelief. Nearly 40 years later, “Back to the Future” proves that a great story never loses its power.