Caden Brauch and Cast Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

The touring production of Back to the Future: The Musical, which is playing at the Cadillac Palace Theatre through September 1, will not disappoint as a nostalgic journey–almost all of the beats from the movie are here, as well as the vast majority of the quotes we remember–but in order to be successful on its own it needs more than that. The individually good Alan Silvestri/Glen Ballard songs are not enough. Despite this team's pedigrees, the songs are fun while they are happening but ultimately too many are rock songs that don't build character and are basically indistinguishable from each other and just not memorable. In fact, sitting here the next afternoon I can honestly remember only bits and pieces, if that, of most of them. (The best thing about these numbers is Chris Bailey's fun and energetic choreography along with Tim Hatley's outstanding costumes.)

What remains for director John Rando, then, is the recreation onstage of the film's many iconic moments–and here BTTFTM is very, very effective. From the cluttered lab of Doc Brown to Lorraine's teen dream bedroom to the clock tower (especially in what would be called closeups if this were on film) to the climactic dance scene to the DeLorean's 88-miles per hour time traveling–a neat effect involving pretty much all of the designers–the movie pretty much comes to life in front of us. (And yes, the DeLorean flies at the end, as it must, though this traveling version cuts out the original's flight over the audience, which, again, it must.)

The actors, very well cast, do a uniformly wonderful job of recreating these iconic characters. Caden Brauch, as Marty McFly, has the perfect blend of confidence and confusion to weather being the object of his mother's lust back in 1955, not to mention a great voice and some nice guitar chops. As Doc Brown, Don Stephenson is given much free reign to create a wonderfully eccentric character, and he takes advantage of it. (Christopher Lloyd must be proud of what Stephenson has done.) He also has a fine voice and is able to command the stage during several major raucous numbers–and one sweet, quiet one, "For the Dreamers," which is the one song that really affected me, possibly because it delves into an aspect of Brown that is not really developed in the movie. More of them should have done this.

As Marty's parents, Burke Swanson and Zan Berube both go huge in the present-day (1985) scenes, echoing the film performances of Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson, but both actors have much more fun with the high school versions of their characters. Swanson, in particular, contorts his wonderfully flexible body to make George McFly, if anything, a bigger geek than in the film, yet is totally believable when George–aided by Marty–finds the strength he needs to ground himself. Berube throws herself fully into hilarious passes at Marty, believing him to be a peer. (It's a bit more uncomfortable rendered onstage than on film, but it never ceases being fun.)

Other standouts include Ethan Rogers' Biff (especially mixing up his words in one song). Biff's ultimate character change still seems impossible and strange, but that isn't Rogers' fault. Cartreze Tucker, as future mayor Goldie Wilson, is wonderful as the character discovers the joy of what Doc calls "dreaming" (a rare connection between the lyrics and character development). Kiara Lee makes a nice 1985 love interest for Marty as well as joining him for a couple of sweet ballads. (The show's more rocking songs are almost all fun even if, like the Huey Lewis songs that we also hear, they have a sameness that makes them blend together even just after hearing them.)

In the end, if you judge a musical simply on the binary scale of "is it entertaining?," then BTTFTM works. But the fact is that, in recreating the film so determinedly, it misses golden opportunities, as we see from the one it didn't miss, "For the Dreamers." Surely a new adaptation of a popular story should do more than reproduce it, right? Isn't that what people complain about in the live-action Disney films? Bob Gale, who wrote the book here based on his and Robert Zemeckis's screenplay, should have dug deeper into the characters, as this genre allows.

Back to the Future: The Musical runs through September 1, 2024, at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph, Chicago IL. For tickets and information, please visit BacktotheFutureMusical.com