this time i also got to do the backstage tour so i can now tell you interesting fun facts about this show that you didn't even want to know
putting this under a cut in case someone doesn't want the tour spoiled for them (and also because this post got kinda long)
-the first thing i saw upon walking backstage was one of the boxes of peanut brittle. it just sat there on a shelf in the hallway
-the guide told us that all the set pieces and props were originally from the broadway production and later sent to hamburg, since they were closing around the time hamburg was preparing to open
-it took hamburg five years to prepare for this musical. five years
-apparently bob gale came here to see the show and "expressed surprise that hamburg handled the special effects so well". He also once again confirmed that there will never be a reboot/another sequel/etc
-the guide (who was one of the people from the prop department) also told us that he never worked on a musical before that had this many small props. he seemed a bit overwhelmed by the amount of props he has to handle
-he also pointed out the hooks on the set pieces. They were used during the broadway production to hang the sets above the stage and lower them down as needed but since hamburg has more space next to the stage they don't hang them but just roll them in from the sides instead. the hooks are still there though
-I got to stand in doc's lab!! obviously we weren't allowed to touch anything and we didn't get to take any pictures either but it was so amazing!
-the delorean was there as well of course! they put a parking sign above the spot where they keep it and declared it the "flux capacitor charging spot"
-the guide then told us something that puzzled me. as far as i know the delorean couldn't actually drive on its own on broadway and had to be moved around (which is why they made sure that the wheels didn't actually touch the ground). now the guide told us that this very same delorean can now apparently drive on its own, using its own wheels, and they move it around on stage using a remote control. ??? but that wasn't the case for broadway right? did they change something about the car? is there anyone who's as insane about this show as i am and knows more about that?
-anyway. they also had a list detailing all the transitions between the scenes and which set pieces have to be moved at what time. there was one transition that ended with doc's lab being on stage and someone wrote "Hurry up!!" next to it with red marker. i wonder if there's a story behind that
-they have 29 cast members from 11 different countries. because the cast is so diverse they mostly speak english backstage
-there was an entire shelf full of water bottles for everyone in the cast. one of those which probably belongs to raphael groß (Marty) was labeled with four different ways to spell "raphi". for whatever reason
-speaking of water bottles, the guide also told us that since marty doesn't really get to leave the stage during the show they needed to sneak in opportunities for him to drink water. i already knew about the water in the pepsi can during the dinner scene (bc casey likes pointed this out) but at least in hamburg they also put a water bottle inside the dumpster that marty gets thrown into by biff's gang so he can drink some water while in there. just imagine lorraine and george trying to fight off biff while marty is in there chilling and enjoying his break
-they keep the stage at about 18 degrees and also very humid to prevent everyone's throats from becoming too dry
-we got to peek into the quick change booths and i spotted a trans pride flag right above marty's costumes (trans marty confirmed???)
-later that day we got to see the show again! another funfact about german theatre is that we don't get little inserts in our playbills to tell us if someone isn't on tonight (in fact, we don't get playbills at all) and I didn't see a screen or anything in the lobby telling us about tonight's cast (like they did in bochum with starlight express) so imagine my surprise when the show started and i slowly realized that the understudies were on for pretty much every major role that night (biff's actor was there and so were the ones for jennifer and goldie wilson, but everyone else wasn't)
-though i gotta say that i really liked this "other" marty. raphael groß has a pretty confident approach to the role but his understudy played him like. a mess. kinda pathetic teen running from one crisis to the next. almost dropping stuff several times. calling lorraine "mama" instead of "mum". actually freaking out when doc pretends to be affected by the radiation and running over to him to make sure he's really fine. accidentally calling doc "dad". audibly sobbing when lorraine kisses him. tearfully pleading with the delorean to turn back on at the end because "No, please, doc needs me..." During one of the many times marty falls over he once threw himself to the ground with so much force that he slid across the stage and almost fell into the orchestra pit (the actor didn't break character but the conductor looked absolutely terrified for a second) so yeah. 10/10 perfect casting
-the actors stuck pretty close to the script and there wasn't much improvising except for the model scene for some reason which turned out hilarious. it started off normally with doc showing marty the model until marty suddenly asks him when exactly doc had the time to build all of that considering everything that's been going on. doc somewhat awkwardly dodges the question and instead redirects marty's attention to the fact that he even used marty's coke bottle for his model. and marty for some reason gets really happy and excited about that. "You're right! That's MY bottle right there!" which leads to this exchange:
Doc, proudly: "Now, I suppose you'd consider this to be 'heavy' as well?"
Marty: "Uh, yeah. You didn't paint it though. If it was painted it'd be like super heavy."
Doc: "Ah." (pause) "I still don't get it."
then Doc continues to explain his plan and after mentioning that marty will return to 1985 he raises his arms up and cheers loudly. Marty does it back at him and they continue with that for a bit before Marty turns to the audience and gestures expectantly so we all raised our arms up as well and cheered with them.
-there's also a small change in "for the dreamers". they translated doc's line about "people just took advantage of me" as "people were always laughing at me" and he also pretty desperately tells marty that "i was never actually insane." poor doc has finally found one (1) friend and he's terrified that marty is going to listen to the rumors about him and leave him again :(
-on another sad note, i noticed that the theatre was only about halfway full even though it was saturday. another showing on the same weekend had about two thirds of the seats empty. something tells me this show isn't going to be in hamburg for long. well. i'll enjoy it while it lasts.
I am so tired of short-attention-span, trim-the-fat culture.
All writing advice these days is for how to write like Chuck Palahniuk. "Cut 'think', cut 'feel', cut 'wonder' - only action, only pushing forward, show and move and move and move." What if I could emulate this style, and still don't want to? What if I want to write like Henry James, with three paragraphs of introspective musings between each dialogue line?
The music advice is, "make it shortform, make it Tik-Tok compatible, make it punchy, hit the refrain as soon as possible." What if I want that 10-minute prog rock piece? What if I want that symphony? What if I want it slow and luxurious and lazy?
Movies. Series. Poetry. Bodies. Everything is "trimmed trimmed trimmed trimmed, stripped bare, you have three seconds to win me over, make it airport chic." I don't want to win you over, then, I guess.
I want the fat left it.
I want the pleasure and the indolence and the indulgence.
Fuck this art-advice that's always "your art needs Ozempic."
listen i may take 4 weeks to write a 3k word chapter, and i may take 45 minutes to decide whether i should use “laugh” or “chuckle”, but at least i don’t use ai and whatever you’re getting is pure chaos from a human brain
new deranged back to the future media just dropped
it's five a.m. but idc. i gotta talk about this.
back to the future super adventure book? no, this is the super marty torture book.
y'know, i thought i tortured my characters too much. but hitoshi yasuda is on an advanced level.
let's talk about it!
better strap in though, we're in for a ride.
everything here was translated via machine translation. google translate tends to do pretty well these days, but there is always a possibility of the machine translation misinterpreting things.
most of these endings are just plain gruesome. there's a couple where marty gets shot. one where he gets run over. burned to death. car crash. seemingly one implies he is ripped apart by the stream of time itself? easily could be me misinterpreting that particular "time paradox" ending.
there's one where he gets put in the mental ward (book's words, not mine).
multiple where he (and sometimes, doc as well) gets caught in a paradox and simply fades... including one where george watches it happen because he didn't hit biff and confront dixon. many of these endings mention marty specifically "trying to make [him]self experience something that [he] [him]self had never experienced."
"You were utterly unable to locate the DeLorean. There is no longer any way for you to return to the future. As you would later learn, Doc somehow managed to survive. You will likely change your name and live out your days quietly in some town."
there's a few interesting endings. one that caught my eye the most is the one on page 352.
"The DeLorean was never found, so Marty changed his name and went to live quietly somewhere."
mary pickford, anyone? it's not the only one where marty gets stranded, but the other stranded ending is very one note and just. it's boring.
"When you returned to the living room, a stranger came down from the second floor. Your brother and sister greeted him, saying, 'Good morning, Brother.' You felt as though a bucket of cold water had been thrown over your buoyant spirits. You had grasped the truth instinctively. That man was your brother—and, at the same time, the son of you and Lorraine. Was Mother aware of this? You would be tormented by this question for the rest of your life."
page 378's ending... uhhh. it's something.
"Marty and Lorraine spend the night together, and back in the future, Dave and Linda find a stranger who claims to be their brother."
marty is the father of his own half brother.
also have a picture of something the crappy inbuilt translator on my phone spat out at me for the page 230 ending
yes, i am a grown man with a mature sense of humor. clearly.
here's a few more. less on the deranged side. instead, yasuda-san kisses a brick and then throws it.
Page 160: "Marty went back to 1985 without seeing his parents." aka "A sloppy pussy"
"I hear a voice. What time is it, exactly? The future? Or the past? You finally wake up. It is the familiar voice of your mother. There is no doubt—you have returned. Still groggy with sleep, you head downstairs. Catching sight of your family—as disheveled and unchanged as ever—you feel a mix of relief and disappointment. Regardless, you are back. And so begins another day, just as unremarkable as the last."
Page 407: "The Libyans killed Doc because Marty wouldn't tell him about the future."
"Your heart is heavy with sorrow. Everyone may have mocked him, but Doc was truly a kind-hearted—and exceptionally brilliant—man. You succeeded in returning to the future, yet for the rest of your life, you must live with the heavy burden of knowing that you were unable to save him."
Page 249: "George didn't hit Biff and Dixon.", briefly mentioned previous as the ending where george watches marty fade.
"You began to feel an intense agony. You were fading away from this world. The last thing your eyes beheld was the face of your father, peering down at you with deep concern."
honestly if there was a full translation of this book many of these would make a lot more sense, even if done by a machine translation... i did find two copies on mercari, but i am not sure if it would be too costly to ship atm. there's one on ebay but it would cost over $60 to buy so nah. no thanks.
I finally got to see the bttf musical in germany! (after seeing it two years ago on broadway)
some changes from the original version and other thoughts under the cut (beware of spoilers!)
-first of all, i was really impressed by how well they pulled off all the special effects. apart from the plutonium not glowing and another mishap towards the end (more on that further down) everything was just as it was supposed to be
-marty doesn't refer to himself as "tardy Marty" in the parking lot scene, he calls himself "last-minute Marty" instead
-doc doesn't namedrop the manhattan project either. instead he says that he's kept the radiation suit from "my time with Oppenheimer".
-unfortunately they removed the little discussion between Marty and Doc about how to pronounce "flux capacitor" :(
-after they finish bullying george, biff and his gang run out of the cafe yelling "and now we'll get that fourth-grader!"
-lorraine's dad complains that Marty is apparently the fifth boy this month to fall out of a tree in front of his house
-raphael groß (who plays marty) really struggled with his zipper after "pretty baby". he was still frantically trying to close it after lorraine's parents were already in the room
-when marty first knocks on doc's door, he opens it for a sec just to slam it into Martys face again. then he opens the door again after a moment of consideration and pulls marty in (pretty similar to the movie)
-later, when Marty convinces doc by telling him the story of how he invented the flux capacitor, doc opens the door again and marty falls in. doc somehow completely misses him and looks out the door in confusion until finally spotting marty down on the floor.
-also doc's guess for who's vice president in 1985 is daffy duck. complete with a spot-on imitation
-after "future boy", while ushering the background dancers out of his garage, doc tells the last one "i liked your part the most!"
-speaking of doc, his actor was clearly having so much fun with the role. he also managed to sound super similar to Lutz Mackensy (who is doc's german va in the movies)
-although unfortunately, doc's actor was also pretty prone to send saliva flying while speaking. after the whole "lots of watts!" thing with marty he even went "aw, i got spit on you marty, i'm so sorry" and proceeded to wipe it off Marty's face without even breaking character
-i was pretty curious how some of the stuff would be translated. unfortunately biff's specific insult towards Marty from the movies ("milchgesicht", literally "milk face") did not make it into the musical. they also changed the translation of the enchantment under the sea dance from "Verzauberung unter dem See Tanz" to "Magie unter dem Meer Tanz" which i guess is closer to the english one but still. also the translation of "if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything" was (understandably!) shortened from "wenn man sich nur ordentlich bemüht, kann man alles auf die beine stellen" to "Wer will, der kann!" the last one fit into the songs much better
-however, some stuff was left completely untranslated. doc just calls Marty "future boy", which leads to a pretty hypocritial moment when marty uses "heavy" (yes, the english word) and doc shortly does the "this is temporal physics, weight has nothing to do with it" bit before calling marty out on suddenly using english slang words when they're supposed to be speaking german. and then he proceeds to call him "future boy"
-the hill valley high school song was extremly shortened. instead we got an additional scene of lorraine telling her friends about marty (who are not quite as hyped as she is). at one point lorraine dramatically drops against the lockers behind her and goes "Oh, but what if he's in college?!" and one of her friends does the same and goes "yeah, or in special ed?" lorraine also calls herself "Lorraine Klein" und asks "doesn't that sound wonderful?" just before walking off stage and her friends turn to the audience and shake their heads before also leaving
-george struggled a bit to finish his milk (chocolate!). he got his own little applause after finally emptying it
-docs vision of the year 2020 in this version doesn't include kale. instead he mentions that people are riding electric scooters "even the adults!" and that everyone's staring into little rectangles and talking into them (he even copied the way people hold their phones while recording voice messages)
-upon spotting lorraine in front of his door, doc veeeryyy sloooowly closed the curtain in front of the window
-later, when showing his plan to marty, doc doesn't even try to argue against it when marty compliments his model. they both loudly go on about how it's absolutely amazing and doc pulls marty towards him several times and leans his head against him.
-doc in general was just so affectionate with marty. he ruffled his hair several times (marty's hair looked super fluffy btw) both hugs were also on point, especially the last one. marty pretty much threw himself at doc there and buried his face in doc's shoulder (my heart!)
-when lorraine asks george "where have you been all my life?" he tries to lean against the wall next to her but somehow completely misses and instead falls flat on his face
-doc at first falls for the "thank you note" marty gives him and goes "oh, that's so nice of you, you shouldn't have" until stopping and then going "wait, this is information about the future, isn't it?!"
-to my surprise, "the power of love" continued without being interrupted by an incoming delorean. instead it just awkwardly faded out and the actors quickly shuffled offstage during the applause. then nothing happened for a few more seconds until suddenly the curtain dropped and we were told that there's a technical error and they need a few minutes to "fix the space-time-continuum". after a bit, the curtain rose again and marty waved and said "Hi again, Hamburg!" before they performed power of love again and everything continued as it should. we even got the flying car at the end
-speaking of the delorean, there was one downstairs in the lobby to take pictures with! i finally fulfilled my dream of being in that car, haha. there was also a small section with the clocktower complete with cables to also take pictures.
all in all it was absolutely amazing. i will definitely be back!
