When the curtain goes up on “Back to the Future: The Musical” this week, audiences will expect to see certain things from the classic 1985 film they know and love so well.
One is Marty McFly’s signature puffy red vest and skateboard. Another is Doc Brown, with his shock of white hair, exclaiming “Great Scott!” And what would an adaptation be without hearing a couple of those classic Huey Lewis rock songs?
But the one thing they’ll anticipate more than anything is the appearance of the souped-up, tricked-out DeLorean, which when it reaches 88 mph becomes a time machine that transports Marty, and the audience, back to 1955.
“Everything began with getting that car right,” says Tim Hatley, who designed the show’s sets and costumes, on the phone from London, England. He recently did the sets for the new musical version of “The Devil Wears Prada.”
“Early on I decided that I wanted to create a world that fused video projections and moving scenery, but the car had to be believable.”
Hatley worked in a similar way with “Life of Pi,” which powerfully integrated set elements and projections.
Bob Gale, the co-writer of “Back to the Future,” also wrote the book for the musical and he’s given the DeLorean an actual voice. But Hatley had a list of other things he needed to make the car appear as if it’s actually hurtling along.
“Smoke, lights, sound effects,” he said. “Also, actors needed to be able to get in it easily, stand on top of it and, because it’s a musical, dance on it.”
Early on, Hatley and his team built wooden and cardboard cut-out versions of the car. They decided to make the vehicle approximately 10 per cent smaller than an actual DeLorean — partly to be able to fit backstage, but also because cars look better onstage when they’re slightly smaller.
“Everything is scaled down,” he said. “A car looks fine in the street, but if you put it in your living room it would look enormous.”
After finding and 3D-scanning an actual DeLorean, the designer oversaw the construction in a scenic workshop: the shell is made of fibreglass, and the inside is full of smoke machines, speakers, lights and other gizmos created by a group of engineers from Holland.
Using a car onstage has different demands than using it in a film. Hatley had to map out what he calls “the story of the car.”
“If the car appears on, say, four occasions during the show, you don’t want it to be coming in from the same place every time,” he said. “So you have to create a kind of path or journey for it. If it ‘lives’ in the wings on stage right and travels on, then it exits stage left and you’ll need a place to park it there. If the next time it appears it’s coming from the back, you have to find a moment to move it, when the audience can’t see it. And then you’ve got to work out things like: ‘How is it going to fly?’”
Add to this the fact that for tours — Toronto is getting the final leg of the North American tour, and Hatley is currently putting together the set for the U.K. tour — the show will be wheeling into theatres of various shapes and sizes.
“For tours, we try to make the show the same wherever it lands,” he explained. “We design to fit into the smallest venue. When we’re somewhere that’s much larger, we do things to the proscenium to make it feel like it fits in the space better.”
Touring shows have to make sense financially. So the number of trailers that hits the road is important. So are the hours it takes to construct and take down a set.
“We take all of that very seriously,” said Hatley. “As a result, we have to build things differently. Some things that might be hard scenery on Broadway or the West End might be constructed from soft cloth that can come down quickly, pack up and get in a truck.
“With ‘Back to the Future,’ the big thing we knew we had to preserve was the DeLorean and all its effects. So audiences are getting really great value.”
Hatley, whose set was nominated for both Tony and Olivier awards, says he’s been thrilled by the reaction of audiences.
“So many people have reached out and told me they had a great time,” he said. “I’ve met super fans who don’t normally go to the theatre, let alone musicals, who’ve been impressed. And even my nephew, who’s not a theatre fan, said he absolutely loved it and wants to go see other shows.”
“Back to the Future: The Musical” runs until Aug. 31 at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. Visit mirvish.com or call 1-800-461-3333 for tickets and more information.
