New York
BTTF:TM First Preview
The big day had finally arrived! We didn't do much in the morning, just hung out in the hotel room and relaxed, after the long day we'd had yesterday.
Some more photos of the view outside of our hotel window. We were on the 27th floor! The air is very bad, compared to back in England... you can see that the skies were very dark and overcast due to pollution.
Mew: It might also have been because of the wildfires that had blown in from Canada a few weeks prior. Luckily most of that had cleared up before we got here though.
We read online that there was going to be a small ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5 pm to officially open the merch store, so made our way over to the Winter Garden and arrived at around 4:25 pm.
We met up with some other fans that had come over from England while waiting for the shop to open.
This sign was on the shop door, advertising the opening ceremony.
Mew: Sorry for the blurriness. There were a lot of reflections in the glass so I had to crop those out.
At 5 pm, Bob Gale (writer and co-creator of the BTTF series) and Casey Likes (who plays Marty in the show) showed up to cut the ribbon and officially open The Store, ahead of the first preview that night:
We hung out for a while and then went to the McDonald's across the road to get something to eat before the show. (We didn't bother trying to get into the shop after it opened - way too crowded.)
Everything is dangerous in America! :O
The theatre, as seen from across the road. The Winter Garden is between two restaurants, Ellen's Stardust Diner (which has singing waiters) and Applebee's (an American chain). We heard both were good, but didn't get round to trying either while we were there.
We went back to the theatre a bit before 7 pm and looked around the shop. They'd already sold out of the merch, specifically a big decorative skateboard and a plaque on a stand that looks like the time circuits inside the DeLorean.
Mew: Apparently there were only 12 of the circuit plaques available on the first day and they went FAST. I guess they hadn't anticipated there'd be such a demand for them.
Mew: They did still have this smaller circuit board ornament though, as well as the DeLorean Christmas ornament introduced at the Adelphi in December 2022, which I think they overestimated the demand for (not sure about Broadway, but it took the London theatre all of 2023 to sell out of them). A bit of trivia, the circuit board ornament's dates are all set to October 26th 1985 here (I think they're just generic BTTF merch rather than something made specially for the show), but later stock changed the "Present" date to June 30th 2023, to be more fitting for the musical.
They also had lots of merch that was brand new and had never been seen before, some of which was specifically for the Broadway production, while others would later be released in the UK too. Mew got a shirt featuring Marty and Doc and a matching tote bag, and then we went to join the queue to get into the theatre.
We walked down the road, around the corner... and around ANOTHER corner, as the queue had already reached the stage door at the back of the building!!! I think it eventually stretched around the whole building!
Eventually the line started moving, and we got into the theatre around 7:59 pm. The show was meant to start at 8 pm, but obviously ended up starting a bit later.
Cast board for the first performance. Unlike many UK theatres, they just list the actors' names and not which characters they played (the characters are listed in the Playbill instead).
When you go into the Winter Garden theatre, there's a small entrance area with the box office and cast board, then you go through the doors into another corridor area (which had a small merch stall in one corner), then into the auditorium itself, with the bar and another merch stall at the back. We were sitting in Orchestra seats, which is what we'd call Stalls in England. It was so crowded and noisy! I'd never been to the theatre before (well, not a big theatre like this! I've been to the local theatre in Sylvania lots of times, but amateur productions aren't quite the same as a big Broadway show...) but Mew said things aren't usually this crazy (at least not in the UK... this was her first Broadway show, too!), this was just because it was the first show.
Mew: One slightly disappointing thing is that the Winter Garden isn't anywhere near as decorated as the Adelphi is. The Adelphi Theatre lobby and upstairs bars are all decked out in BTTF theming, signs and posters and such, to really make it feel like you've stepped right into Hill Valley circa 1985. The merch stalls at the Winter Garden were similarly themed to the ones we have, but otherwise it was just like any other theatre. (They do play 80s music and faux radio announcements in the area between the entrance and auditorium, though, just like you can hear in the Adelphi's lobby.) I guess since the Winter Garden is so much bigger than the Adelphi, they weren't able to be as indepth with the decorating?
We found our seats and waited for the show to start.
Mew: One notable difference about Broadway theatres vs UK ones is Playbills. Playbills are given out free to all audience members at Broadway theatres, you're given one before being directed to your seat. We don't have these in the UK at all, instead you can purchase a souvenir programme from the merchandise stall (many theatres have a cheap programme with just cast info and perhaps a photo or do, and a bigger brochure-type programme with glossy production photos and articles, etc that are slightly more expensive). As you can see, the ones given out today had a special sticker on them to show they were from the very first preview.
Mew: BTW, for those not familiar with the term, the first few weeks of a theatre show are called "Previews". Previews usually last about a month. During this period of time, the show irons out any kinks and things can change, or even be cut, from day to day. Since Back to the Future had been running in the UK for 2 years at this point (plus 2 months in Manchester back in 2020), there weren't quite as many changes made during previews as a brand-new show might have, but we still spotted things being changed and tweaked while we were there. When a show has its "Press Night" or "Opening Night", the show is considered 'locked' and more-or-less finalized (some small tweaks here and there may still be made after previews, but you usually won't see any huge changes/cuts/etc after previews, except in exceptional situations).
The show started after a while, with a speech from the director John Rando thanking us for being there and explaining that, as it was the first show, there might be some goofs or glitches. Then the lights went down and the show began! It was amazing!
Mew: Quite a few differences to the West End show, too - I was surprised to see a lot of things were brought back from the original Manchester production too. Some of which remained, while others were cut or changed over the next few days. And if you're wondering, the only real blooper that happened was near the end of act 1, when Nathaniel Hackmann (Biff) accidentally ripped a locker door clean off (instead of just throwing it open) and had to throw it into the wings ^^; It worked perfectly for the scene though, I wasn't even certain it WAS a goof until it was confirmed online later.
This is the screen that they have up during the interval :3
Mew: At this point, it was the same as the one they have the Adelphi, but I think they ended up changing it a few weeks into previews (after we came home).
After the show ended, we went outside to be greeted by a huge army of pedicabs (also known as tuk tuks) all waiting outside and jockeying for attention, it was kind of scary how many were there!
Mew: I was surprised to see they have these in New York too. They're all over the place in London.
The Winter Garden had an exit that lets out right by the stage door, so we hung out there for a bit, soaking up the atmosphere and seeing some of the actors as they came out, as well as talking again to some fellow UK fans. Things were crazy, as you can imagine, very crowded and hectic, so we didn't stick around for long.
Day 3: 01 July 2023