Overview
We're going back ... back to see Back to the Future, this time as a musical on the Sydney Lyric Theatre's stage. First floated 20 years ago by the big-screen trilogy's screenwriter Bob Gale, then finally premiering in 2020, the song-filled take on Marty McFly and Doc Brown's exploits has proven an award-winning success in London's West End and on Broadway. In 2025, the DeLorean is finally heading to Australia.
The power of Back to the Future isn't really a curious thing. As viewers have known since 1985, the Michael J Fox (The Good Fight)-starring sci-fi/comedy is timeless delight. But as well as making film lovers weep with joy for almost four decades, the iconic movie has been making other folks sing — the casts of the Olivier Award-winning Back to the Future: The Musical, that is. Aussie audiences will get to see the results from September 2025 in the show's Down Under premiere season.
Exclaiming "great Scott!" is obviously the only fitting response to this development, and to the production in general — and there's clearly plenty to get excited about. Since initially racing towards clocktowers onstage in the UK since early 2020 (around a pandemic hiatus or two, of course), Back to the Future: The Musical has picked up the Olivier Award for Best New Musical, and then was nominated for two Tony Awards in 2024. And yes, the show does indeed follow the Marty McFly and Doc Brown-led story we all know and adore, but with songs, including renditions of Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B Goode' and Huey Lewis and the News' 'The Power of Love' and 'Back in Time', naturally.
Australian fans will now want to speed at 88 miles per hour towards the Harbour City, given that it is the only Aussie city where a season of Back to the Future: The Musical has been announced so far. If you won't be making a visit to the New South Wales capital by plane or DeLorean, start crossing your fingers that the production heads to other Aussie cities — or pop on your own white lab coat, start tinkering around with electronics and whip up your own time machine to try to make it happen.
There's no exact date for the show's Down Under opening yet, other than sometime in September 2025, but you can now join the ticket waitlist to find out as soon as more details are announced.
Also featuring music and lyrics by OG Back to the Future composer Alan Silvestri and acclaimed songwriter Glen Ballard (Jagged Little Pill the Musical), plus a book by Gale — who co-penned all three Back to the Future film scripts with filmmaker Robert Zemeckis (Here) — Back to the Future: The Musical was nominated for seven Olivier Awards. It only won the big one, but emerged victorious over heavy-hitters and fellow screen-to-stage shows Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Frozen.
"I am thrilled to be bringing Back to the Future: The Musical to Australia, premiering at the Sydney Lyric in September 2025. Australian audiences are going to be blown away to see how this iconic story has been recreated for the stage," said Australian producer John Frost for Crossroads Live Australia.
"To paraphrase Marty McFly, you guys are ready for this, and your kids are gonna love it (too)! If Bob Zemeckis and I time-travelled back to 1980 and told our younger selves that the script they were struggling to write would become a West End and Broadway musical now making its way to Sydney, Australia 45 years later, they'd kick us out of their office and call us crazy," added Gale.
"Well, sometimes, crazy ideas give birth to great entertainment, and now Bob and I are eager to share our musical vision with Sydney audiences. This musical production has exceeded our original expectations on every level. Regardless of whether you've seen the original film, Back to the Future: The Musical, with its incredible stagecraft, will delight and enthrall you, your kids, your parents, and everyone you know!"
Check out the trailer for Back to the Future: The Musical below:
Back to the Future: The Musical is playing Sydney Lyric Theatre, 55 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont, Sydney from September 2025. Head to the show's Australian website to join the ticket waitlist and keep an eye out for more details.
Images: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman, and Sean Ebsworth Barnes.