Hugh Coles Sets Back to the Future Departure

Olivier Award winner Hugh Coles and Merritt David Janes will depart the Broadway company of Back to the Future: The Musical on Sunday, June 23.

Replacing them in the roles of George McFly and Strickland will be Evan Alexander Smith (Merrily We Roll Along) and David Josefsberg (Spamalot). Josefsberg will pick up Janes’s full track, which also includes playing Unhoused Man, Mayor Red Thomas, Lou Carruthers, and Sam Banes, as well as understudying the role of Doc Brown.

Coles’s departure marks the end of his long tenure with the show, which began at the Manchester Opera House in 2020. He received Olivier and WhatsOnStage awards for his performance in the West End mounting at the Adelphi Theatre.

Back to the Future is directed by John Rando and features a creative team that includes Tim Hatley (set and costume design), Tim Lutkin and Hugh Vanstone (lighting), Gareth Owen (sound) and Finn Ross (video), with choreography by Chris Bailey, musical supervision and arrangements by Nick Finlow, illusions by Chris Fisher, orchestrations by Ethan Popp and Bryan Crook, dance arrangements by David Chase, and music direction by Ted Arthur. It runs at the Winter Garden Theatre.