When a car from the 1980's that does fantastic tricks and stunts via some incredible theatrical magic turns out to be the real star of the show, you realize there's something amiss, especially when that car is receiving more audience reactions than the regular action onstage. Yeah, you might wanna stick with the movie when it comes to this one. There always seemed to be a correlation with famous 80's flicks and the Broadway stage: they just don't mix (i.e. "Footloose," "Ghost," "Flashdance," to name a few). This one just proves the point even more, especially for a West End transfer. Now I'm not saying I didn't have a good time; it was entertaining had life in it, but it wasn't anything extraordinary. The songs are just meh and turn out to be forgettable minus the two Huey Lewis songs incorporated at the tail end; some songs maybe didn't even need to be in there or were in semi-odd places, but that's just me. The book is practically the movie script with a few amendments and additions that barely got a laugh out of the audience, although a fair amount of dialogue sounded jumbled coming out of actors' mouthes. The design could be defined as cutout sets and the projections steal the attention from them completely along with slightly exaggerated costumes to define the 80's and 50's. Even the staging could be questionable and it was helmed by the Tony Winner for "Urinetown" (kitschy chorus line bits that just felt out of place was the big one for me). The cast gives it their all, but it still just didn't land, especially for a pro like the great Roger Bart who really does give a fantastic pulse to the doctor; same can be said for brit Hugh Coles as the dad (damn that man gave a lot perfectly awkward vocality and physicality). I couldn't find anything good to say in Casey Likes, whose probably-large ego just spills off of him in every hip swivel and chest/pelvic thrust to the point I would just roll my eyes (no justice has been given to Michael J. Fox). The rest of the core cast either just weren't standouts or fade into the background no matter how much they gave to the performance. Was it worth checking out to begin with? Absolutely; I had wonderful time at the theater getting to see what the new season had to otter. Would I highly recommend it. No; you should stick with the movie or only see it if you are a real diehard for the franchise. If the team behind it could "Put There Mind To It" a little bit more, maybe they could've created something with even more exciting potential. However, this is what we've got for the present. Let's see what happens with it in the future.
