DeLorean, not the music, is the star in 'Back to the Future: The Musical"

No, really. The fiberglass replica DeLorean floated above the Centennial Hall stage at the end of Tuesday's opening night performance, and with a little distraction courtesy of smoke, projections and advanced LED lighting technology, the car disappears as Doc and Marty are zapped back to the future. 

Judging from the applause Tuesday, the car stole the show, which Broadway In Tucson is presenting through Sunday. 

The car has a built-in Siri-like interactive voice that only responds to Doc. So when Marty crash-lands in Hill Valley on Nov. 5, 1955, and tries to restart the stalled car, it responds: "Voice not recognized." When he curses for it to start, the car admonishes him: "Profanity not necessary."

The talking DeLorean is one of the highlights of the Bob Gale/Robert Zemeckis-penned musical version of their iconic 1985 film "Back to the Future." The stage show is a clever reimagining that adds some 21st-century nuances and 17 songs, penned by Alan Silvestri, who composed the film score, and singer-songwriter Glen Ballard.

The story is the same — wannabe 1980s teen rockstar Marty McFly goes 30 years back in time to 1955 and encounters his parents, prompting him to insert himself in their lives in order to save his future.

But the circumstances are dramatically different: Marty (Lucas Hallauer) accidentally triggers the flux capacitor when he goes for help after Doc Brown (David Josefsberg) is exposed to plutonium. In the film, Marty is fleeing Libyan terrorists who just shot Doc after he stole their plutonium to fuel his DeLorean time machine. 

Instead of writing a note warning Doc about the Libyans, Marty's note warns Doc to wear protective gear, which, to the surprise of no one in Tuesday's audience, he does.

The stage version also includes a few modern-day wink-winks like Doc's "21st Century" EDM dream sequence that takes him to the year 2020, where there is "no conflict and no disease."

The irony was not lost on Tuesday's audience.

But the biggest problem with making a stage version out of a movie as iconic as "Back to the Future" is the unavoidable comparisons to the original. Michael J. Fox's Marty was genuinely shocked when his teenage mom, Lorraine, seemed romantically fixated on him; Hallauer's Marty overplayed the ick factor with high-pitched squeals.

In the stage version, Josefsberg's Doc is far more self-confident than the character Christopher Lloyd played in the film. Josefsberg's version gets more laugh lines, including a scene where he mimics sex to explain to Marty how getting his parents to kiss at the dance will eventually lead to his conception.

Meanwhile, Mike Bindeman's George McFly mirrored the film version: appropriately weak and nerdy with an underlying irresistible cuteness 

With the superb ensemble cast and a toolbox of impressive special effects that made us believe the replica DeLorean had sped into the spacetime continuum and crash landed into a 1955 barn, "Back to the Future: The Musical" served as a fresh redux of the film. But this being a musical, we had expected to be equally impressed by the music.

Overall, the music served its purpose to move the story along, and it was nice to hear Silvestri's iconic film theme referenced throughout the 2 hours and 45 minutes. But the songs were a mixed bag.

"Gotta Start Somewhere," "Put Your Mind to It," “It’s Only a Matter of Time” and “Something About That Boy" hit the mark, as did the resurrection of "Back In Time," "Johnny B. Goode" and "Power of Love" from the film. But several others, including Doc's "For the Dreamers" and George's "Hello — Is Anybody Home?" bordered on cheesy.

"Back to the Future: The Musical" continues through Sunday at Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. on the University of Arizona Campus. For times and tickets, visit broadwayintucson.com.