(Radio Iowa) – The new Broadway musical version of the biggest film of 1985 makes its Iowa debut this week, with a former Iowan in one of the lead roles. In “Back to the Future: The Musical,” Don Stephenson plays Doc Brown, the inventor who creates a time machine out of a DeLorean sports car. Stephenson argues it’s the greatest time travel story ever told and says if you loved the movie from almost 40 ago, you’ll equally love this updated version for today’s stage. “You’re going to recognize all of it, but with new stuff, because obviously, this is a musical, but I would always say that the original movie was leaning towards being a musical anyway,” Stephenson says. “Because it had the Huey Lewis songs, it had ‘Johnny B. Goode,’ of course, and the dance at the end, so all of that is there.”

Practically everyone who was going to movies in 1985 saw the original, but even in this age of instant streaming, Stephenson says there’s a whole generation who’s never heard of Marty McFly. “People who have never seen the movie come and see the musical, and they’re sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to see what’s going to happen next, and that always amazes me,” he says. “I’ll see people after the show, and I’ll say, ‘Are you a Back to the Future fan?’ and they’ll say, ‘I’ve never seen it before. This was the first time,’ and I always love that.”

Stephenson says he adores it when he can spot devoted fans in the audience who dress as their favorite characters from the film; sometimes it’ll be a dad in a Doc wig beside his young son as Marty. The original film had a certain chemistry that just worked, Stephenson says, as a combination science fiction, action, romance — that was also about family and friendship. Even if you’ve seen the movie a dozen times, he says the musical offers something new along with the familiar. “To see something happening in front of you, you really do see it fresh from a new perspective, even if you know the story so well, because that’s what theater can do, that’s what live theater does,” Stephenson says. “And so you’re going to see it from a different angle, even if you know it very, very well by seeing it on stage.”

Stephenson has called New York City home the past few decades, but grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where his parents still live. When asked by Radio Iowa if this would be his first time in Iowa, he paused, then laughed: “When I was a baby, my father got a job in Iowa, and we moved there, I think when I was six months old, and stayed for maybe slightly less than a year, and then moved back to Tennessee because my parents didn’t like the cold.”

He remembers nothing of the experience, not even what town they were in, only that it was near a river. Stephenson acknowledges he’s technically a former Iowan, and he’s hoping for a much warmer reception this time around.