Music Theatre International has acquired the licensing rights to Back to the Future: The Musical, which puts the time-travel show within reach of schools, community theaters and professional companies. MTI says more licensing details are to come.
The licensor announced the deal on October 21 in a statement on its website. It has not yet said when groups can apply for performance rights.
The musical is adapted from the 1985 Universal/Amblin film by the movie’s own creators, Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, with new songs by Alan Silvestri, who wrote the film’s score, and Glen Ballard. Numbers from the movie stay in, among them The Power of Love, Johnny B. Goode, Earth Angel and Back in Time.
The show opened at the Manchester Opera House in England in February 2020 and reached London’s West End in 2021. It was named Best New Musical at the 2022 Olivier Awards, and its Broadway production later drew two Tony nominations, for Roger Bart as Best Featured Actor in a Musical and for its scenic design. MTI puts the total audience so far at more than five million.
Originally produced by Colin Ingram Limited, the musical has finished a North American tour and has played Sydney. A UK tour is on the road, and productions are running in Tokyo, Paris and Hamburg and on Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas. Stagings are planned for Mexico, the Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, Korea and Scandinavia, along with a Southeast Asia tour.
“It is everything a West End and Broadway show should be,” said Drew Cohen, president and CEO of MTI, who expects groups “from schools to community theaters, to professionals” to take it on. Gale said the deal lets the story “continue to be told by even more people.”
