What started as a look back at his dad\u2019s past led to a future success Bob Gale could only imagine.<\/p>\n
And it was from the dual imaginations of himself and his good friend and fellow writer\/director Robert Zemeckis that a legendary story was brought to life, \u201cBack to the Future.\u201d That original movie from 1985 starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd spawned two sequels and continues to, well, stand the test of time.<\/p>\n
And now it has a musical version, featuring a script written by Gale, which is coming to Bass Hall March 24-29<\/a> as part of Performing Arts Fort Worth\u2019s Broadway at the Bass Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople kept saying why not do a \u2018Back to the Future 4?\u2019 We kept saying no, we told the perfect story,\u201d Gale, 75, said. \u201cBob Zemeckis and I were two guys who did not want to see the Beatles get back together. It\u2019s better to leave some things well enough alone.\u201d<\/p>\n However, a new idea came to them in 2005 after Zemeckis and his wife Leslie saw the musical \u201cThe Producers\u201d by Mel Brooks. The original movie version in the late 1960s was a nonmusical, and while it garnered an Oscar nomination for Gene Wilder, it enjoyed nowhere the success of the musical it spawned.<\/p>\n \u2b50 Our editors also recommend: <\/p>\n \u201cLeslie said, \u2018Have you guys ever thought about \u2018Back to the Future\u2019 as a musical?\u2019\u201d Gale said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way to revisit the story, but we\u2019re not rebooting or adding a fourth.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one expects to see Michael J. Fox \u2014 which was another reason we felt we couldn\u2019t do a fourth movie. This is a stage cast.\u201d<\/p>\n This was Gale\u2019s initial foray into writing a musical. The show premiered in Manchester, England, in 2020, then on the London West End in 2021, winning an Olivier Award in 2022 for Best New Musical. It transferred to Broadway in August of 2023 and ran until January of 2025.<\/p>\n Along with its U.S. run, the show is touring in Tokyo and Sydney.<\/p>\n Creating the original \u2018Back to the Future\u2019<\/p>\n Gale recalled the origin of the original concept, which began in the summer of 1980 as he was visiting his parents in St. Louis. He was going through some items his dad had salvaged from a flood, including his father\u2019s high school yearbook from 1940.<\/p>\n \u201cI attended the same high school 29 years later,\u201d Gale said. \u201cI learned my dad was president of his high school class. It got me wondering, would I have been friends with my dad if we had gone to school at the same time?\u201d<\/p>\n So, he told Zemeckis, who loved the idea of turning it into a story and movie.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were surprised no one had thought of it before. It was the easiest pitch meeting I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Gale said.<\/p>\n However, getting the concept from an idea to an actual movie proved a little more difficult. They wrote two drafts of the original script, but Gale said they were rejected over 40 times.<\/p>\n \u201cWe kept hearing time travel movies don\u2019t make any money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Finally, Universal Studios signed them, made the movie that was released in 1985 and made history.<\/p>\n \u201cGeneration after generation loves it,\u201d Gale said. \u201cWe knew we had something good, but no way we could have imagined the impact it would have \u2014 and still does have.\u201d<\/p>\n The duo received an Academy Award nomination for their script for the original film in the trilogy.<\/p>\n Differences between movie and musical<\/p>\n While the story is the same as the 1985 movie, Gale said there are some differences audiences should expect when they see the musical.<\/p>\n \u201cIt had to be different enough so no one says they could have stayed home and watched the movie,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most notable difference is the DeLorean automobile \u2014 the mode of time travel made famous by the movies \u2014 talks in the stage production. For example, Marty or Doc tells the car a date and destination and it repeats it to them.<\/p>\n \u201cI stole the idea from \u2018Knight Rider,\u2019\u201d Gale said with a chuckle. \u201cIt has a female voice like Siri.\u201d<\/p>\n There is also no dog, Doc\u2019s loyal companion Einstein.<\/p>\n \u201cWe obviously couldn\u2019t have a real dog onstage with some of the effects that happen,\u201d Gale said. \u201cAnd putting someone in a dog costume would look dumb.\u201d<\/p>\n And there will not be a skateboard chase with Marty eluding Biff and his fellow bullies.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just dangerous to have your lead actor on a skateboard,\u201d Gale said. \u201cWe do have an allusion to it, though, as Marty skates through school. We pay homage to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Fans can expect to hear the popular songs from the film\u2019s soundtrack \u201cPower of Love\u201d and \u201cBack in Time.\u201d Also, the classics \u201cJohnny B. Goode\u201d and \u201cEarth Angel\u201d from the school dance scene will be in the musical.<\/p>\n Also, the show will feature an orchestral score throughout, enhancing certain scenes as is regularly done in movies, but as acknowledged by Gale as \u201cextremely rare in musical theater.\u201d<\/p>\n Worldwide hit<\/p>\n Even while conducting this interview, Gale was preparing for a trip abroad to promote the musical. He noted it\u2019s hard to find a part of the world that hasn\u2019t seen and fallen in love with the adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown, the two main characters in the story.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody in the world wonders \u2018What did my parents do on their first date?\u2019\u201d Gale said. \u201cWhat would it be like to be a fly on the wall for their first date?<\/p>\n \u201cThen you realize they were my age once. That transcends all cultures, and that\u2019s why \u2018Back to the Future\u2019 works all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What started as a look back at his dad\u2019s past led to a future success Bob Gale could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[81347,11372,116,118,117,21362,6523],"class_list":["post-207320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-back-to-the-future-the-musical","tag-bass-hall","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-movie","tag-musical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}