Today I went to the Adelphi theatre in London to see a show called Back To The Future The Musical which was based off a film. The story is about a boy called Marty McFly who has a looser dad bullied and he visits doc who invents a time machine inside a DeLorean car, but it needs plutonium to power it and can only be activated with his own voice, but he gets poisoned by the plutonium, so Marty goes into the car to save him, but he gets stuck in 1955 and he was in 1985 also the fuel ran out. Marty goes into a diner where he sees a young version of his dad in school getting bullied by his future boss and then he interacts with his dad to get him to stand up to his bullies. Then he talks to his dad in a tree which he was supposed to fall then meet his mum Lorraine, but Marty breaks his dad called George’s fall and takes his place messing up the timeline. Then he visits a young doc and tells him about being stuck in 1955 and then you look at a picture of him and his family which he was disappearing from the photo. Then Marty joins the schools where his mum falls in love with him instead of George and after teaching George some tricks and him standing up to his bully Biff in the school dance she falls in love with George again. Then Marty grabbed a flyer from his pocket that had the exact place, time and date of a lightning strike hitting the clock tower which could be enough power to send Marty home. So, after some planning and telling Doc about the plutonium poisoning, he managed to get home which saved the Doc. Also, Marty changed the timeline, so his dad was famous for writing a book and the bully Biff was the looser working for George. The costumes were effective in this play because it helped setting the time period of 1985 and 1955 also, I liked it when Marty first arrived in 1955 wearing his puffy jacket people thought it was a life jacket used on boats. The costumes helped with characterization because even though Marty’s puffy jacket looked out of place in that time period, he wore it with confidence which it made him stand out and look cool. Marty did a costume change for the school dance because he was on a date with Lorraine while trying to get Lorraine to fall in love with George again and then after the dance and a song je did a quick change then he met with the Doc to get back to 1985. The costumes showed status because in the beginning Biff was wearing a posh suit while bullying George but at the end Biff was wearing janitor’s clothes while George was wearing the suit which was very effective and noticeable for the changed timeline. The lighting was very effective and different for each time the location changed for example the outside of a mall was made by having a dark set with a red shop sign lighting up in the background with a mall sign of wheels down stage. The colour blue was used a lot mainly because every time the DeLorean moved or stopped blue lights came on with a screen over the top so the car was still seen behind the screen, but it looked like the car was moving with the moving blue light which must have been an intelligent light. Blue lighting was also used for the school dance because the dance was under the sea. Red lights were used near the end when Marty was playing on the guitar while singing after he got back to the changed timeline future where he was in his own band called Marty McFly and the pinheads also a giant sign came down from above that said the band name which also has simple lights around. Sound was used a lot in this show and the back to the future music was repeated which was effective. It was played at the beginning when a screen said you were going back in time to 1985 it was also used every time the DeLorean was driven, and it was played at the end. The music created excitement because it played when something exciting was about to happen. The car had a robot voice which was activated when Doc spoke into the car, and it said things like “time set to the 5th of November 1955” and “I only respond to Doc’s voice” it also said a few funny lines too. A powerful sound effect was a lightning strike which powered back up the car and then the robot voice said that there was enough power to go and then the back to the future music started to play again. Also, at the end the car’s voice said that you were travelling back to 2022 then it said the exact date that it was at the time of watching it which was same at the beginning. When the show started a screen moved upwards to reveal a set of the workshop that the Doc lived in which had bookshelves with tools on, armchairs, pictures on the wall and inventions in the background also it had a door with a window to make it look more like a house. Also, in the workshop Marty was messing around with a powerful speaker connected to a guitar which when he played it the speaker blew up and the bookshelf fell over onto the floor which had supports behinds that fell when a button was pushed which was unexpected and funny. When the scene ended the flat of the workshop split in two then was moved off stage to reveal another set behind it which was a quick and effective set change. On the stage floor there was a circle that turned which was used for many different effects. The DeLorean car was on it, so it looked like the car turned and was moving and, in the school, lockers were in front of the circle, so it looked like hallways then the circle turned to reveal the lunchroom. Also, Marty and Biff were fighting on the lockers and Biff fell backward off the lockers, so some sort of soft landing was hidden behind the lockers too. Also, when doc went up the clock tower stairs instead of having another set to move in the screen came down to create stairs and Doc pretended to climb up them while moving on the spot which was clever and another fast set change. The set was very good and clever so there was never an awkward pause with the lights off to change the location, so it flowed well as a show. There were many props used but they were used so naturally that it was hard to spot like cups, plates and consumable props which was a canned drink and cereal which was when they were introducing the 1985 looser dad before the timeline changed. There was also a light up red lightsaber used by Marty when fighting Biff on the lockers as a reference to Star Wars which was funny that also had Darth Vader breathing in the background when he had the lightsaber. Also, there was spaghetti glued to a plate that the bullies used to put on Marty’s head which showed that he did it without making a mess of him, the costume or turning the floor into a slip hazard. This prop was taken off the set by being on Biff’s head while he was in a wheeled box of spaghetti so if it fell off his head then it would just fall into the box that was being wheeled off anyway. I enjoyed the play because it had lots of humor in also, I saw the play before in the summer holidays and apart from there being a scene where an actor got the hiccups it was exactly the same and still good. I enjoyed the end bit when the DeLorean started to fly with the actors Marty and Doc in and then the car started to spin upside down with the actors inside which was an incredible stunt and surprising both times, I saw it. This was done when the rest of the stage behind was in the dark, so I think a crane was hidden in the dark moving the car also I enjoyed seeing the reactions of the students that saw it for the first time. I don’t think that this show could improve anything about itself because it was really good. It took the classic well known story of Back to the Future and added songs, comedy, and impressive effects like going up the clock tower stairs and the DeLorean moving with the turning floor and a screen.