This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Casey Likes: Hi, I'm Casey Likes. Welcome to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:14] Alan Seales: Hey, everyone. Welcome to an all-new episode of The Theatre Podcast. I'm your host, Alan Seales, and our guest is none other than Marty McFly himself, Casey Likes, of course, and Back to the Future, the musical on Broadway. Something I can't wait for you to hear in this episode is what went through his head, what he was feeling when the closing notice for Almost Famous came through, which, of course, was his Broadway debut and didn't last as long as everyone hoped it would. And he strangely felt a lot of pressure after reading positive reviews about the show because he was feeling the pressure of having to maintain that success. And then when the closing notice came, it was sort of like, oh, yeah, this isn't about me.

It's a business. I am just going to take time for myself and recoup and recenter. And the way that the situation presented itself for him to leave Almost Famous and start Back to the Future, which almost didn't happen, by the way, he turned down Back to the Future at first because Almost Famous hadn't announced closing yet, and there was no way he could have done both at the same time, being Almost Famous at night, Back to the Future rehearsal during the day. So, of course, fate has its way, and now he is doing his thing. Can't wait to share this with you. Find me online, on all the socials, leave a rating, leave a review, wherever you're listening. And now, everybody, please enjoy this episode with Casey Likes.

[1:41] Alan Seales: Today's guest is one of Broadway's brightest rising stars, making his Broadway debut as the lead in last season's production of Almost Famous, the musical. His film credits include playing the young Gene Simmons in the Neil Bogart biopic Spinning Gold, Richie Shepard in the leading role in MGM's feature Dark Harvest, and the film Everything Must Go, where he portrayed a young Will Ferrell. TV credits include the recent Crypt TV and Facebook Watch series, The Birch, as well as National Geographic's American Blackout. A filmmaker himself, he has won awards for the direction of his films Seriously and How to Romance, and at the age of just a wee 17, he won the ASU Gammage High School Music Theatre Award for Best Lead Male, and was a finalist in the 2019 Jimmy Awards, and can now be seen tearing up the stage as Marty McFly in Broadway's Back to the Future, the musical. Casey Likes, man, welcome to the theatre podcast.

[2:39] Casey Likes: Alan, thank you for that introduction. I love hearing that read back to me. That sounds like I'm really awesome. Thank you so much. That's really great, man. And that's all that you've done in the last six months, of course, right?

[2:50] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did that last week, actually.

[2:53] Casey Likes: Right, yeah. Yeah, over a Saturday, just a lazy Saturday, just going out and winning awards and stuff. No, it's funny, because the credits are like, young Gene Simmons, young Will Ferrell, young. So, you know, like, obviously, you are a young person. But go back even farther. When did you originally even get into performing in the first place? And did you originally want to do TV and film? Or was it always theatre and musical theatre?

[3:25] Casey Likes: Yeah, man, great question. I started when I was three, long story short. So the joke about us, you know, doing this last week in six months, obviously, it makes me laugh. It's definitely been a long journey, even though I'm only 21 now. But yeah, I mean, I've been doing it for, you know, about 18 years, if I'm doing my math right. And it's been amazing. When I started, I actually, I guess I technically started with film, because I did a Goodwill commercial was my first job. And that was super fun. And then my mom didn't know how I was going to react because I was only like, three years old.

[4:03] Alan Seales: So wait, Goodwill, when you were three years old, you were doing the commercial?

[4:06] Casey Likes: Yeah, yeah. I was, I was literally three barely could speak. But clearly, I learned pretty fast, because my mom didn't know if I was going to freeze up in front of the camera. And then the camera turned on and they said action. And all I was supposed to do was tell a guy off to the side of the camera, a story with like, some dinosaurs and train sets or whatever. And he goes, and after they called cut, they said to my mom, can you tell him to not look at the camera? And tell this story straight down the barrel, tell it to the guy, they thought I was going to be more shy than I was. So then after that, I just kept doing it. I did a subway commercial. So that was, those were my two, my two contacts with film. And then I did a production of A Christmas Carol for five years with my mom. And that was really fun. So theater and film all the same time.

[5:02] Alan Seales: Okay, I'm gonna get back to A Christmas Carol for five years, because that's a long time to do A Christmas Carol. Three years old. Were you, were you? I mean, at three years old, no one I think has the wherewithal to be like, that's what I want to do. I want to be that. Like, what did your parents put you in there and just like, to see how things were going? Where did that even come from?

[5:21] Casey Likes: Yeah, yeah, I was really lucky to have my mom and grandparents that really, they really kind of supported most things that I did, not even most, I mean, all the things that I wanted to do. And they also introduced me to things I didn't know I wanted to do. And they never forced me into it. My mom was on Broadway and in Les Miserables. And so we had the theater bug in the blood, but she didn't really ever force it on me. She kind of just presented auditions and stuff like that and camps to me from a young age and just kind of tried to see if I would like it or not. And I did.

[6:06] Alan Seales: I just looked up, let's look this up. Stephanie Likes, that's your mom.

[6:09] Casey Likes: Yeah.

[6:10] Alan Seales: Stephanie Likes. Hold on, now I got to look up her credits. Let's see, IBDB, Stephanie Likes.

[6:18] Alan Seales: So yeah, Les Mis, look at that, 87. What year was she in it? Because it ran from 87 to 2003.

[6:24] Casey Likes: Ooh, well, that would make it mid-90s, somewhere in there.

[6:33] Alan Seales: Wow. I wonder if I saw her because I came for a high school trip in the 90s to see Les Mis.

[6:41] Casey Likes: Yeah, yeah.

[6:42] Alan Seales: That's incredible. Yeah, my mom came on a high school trip and she saw that show. And then it was her dream to just do that show. It wasn't even like, I want to be a Broadway star. It was like, I want to be in Les Miserables.

[6:56] Casey Likes: Specifically, that's what she wanted.

[6:59] Alan Seales: So literally, and then within a few years, she had done it. So yeah, I mean, it was in the blood and she double covered Eponine and Cosette. And yeah, now it's my favorite show.

[7:15] Alan Seales: Wow. Wow. Well, did you ever do... Sorry, I'm about to lose my musical theater card. What's the kid's name?

[7:24] Casey Likes: Oh, Gavroche?

[7:24] Alan Seales: Gavroche, yeah, yeah.

[7:26] Casey Likes: I did.

[7:26] Alan Seales: You did, yeah?

[7:26] Casey Likes: I've done the show twice. I did Gavroche when I was young at my community theater, Grease Paint Youth Theater in Arizona. And that was amazing. The experience was amazing. And then I did it again in high school with my mom directing me, because she was my drama teacher. And I played Valjean.

[7:54] Alan Seales: That's interesting. That's very cool. Wait, Valjean, you didn't do Gavroche? The second time you did Valjean in high school. Okay.

[8:00] Casey Likes: Yeah, yeah.

[8:01] Alan Seales: So did you do the big fake beard and everything?

[8:05] Casey Likes: Did I do a beard? I don't think I did. If anything, it was like fake stubble or whatever, but I definitely... I grayed the hair. I did all the old age makeup. Yeah, I remember using a little stipple brush and putting it on and being like, look at me, I got facial hair. And then now...

[8:22] Alan Seales: Yeah, now it's impossible to keep a clean shaven face.

[8:26] Casey Likes: You hear that, kids? Don't take it for granted.

[8:29] Alan Seales: That's how I am, man. I like shaving twice a day to keep playing these kids.

[8:33] Casey Likes: Oh, man. Okay. So you grew up then in Arizona?

[8:37] Casey Likes: Yeah, yeah. Chandler, Arizona. Went to Chandler High. It's my alma mater. And yeah, I love it. Born and raised.

[8:44] Alan Seales: There's a friend's joke in there. It was right next to Monica and Ross, Arizona as well.

[8:49] Casey Likes: Chandler.

[8:49] Alan Seales: Okay. I don't know. I don't know friends at all. Isn't that horrifying?

[8:55] Casey Likes: Neither do I, but I know it's like, what are they? Okay. Chandler, Ross, Monica. That's all I got.

[9:03] Alan Seales: That's all I got. I was never...

[9:04] Casey Likes: Wait, you said Ross. All right.

[9:06] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah.

[9:08] Casey Likes: Someone's gonna... Half of your viewers just left by the way.

[9:11] Alan Seales: I know. I just lost half of my fan base. My bad.

[9:15] Alan Seales: So then at what point are you deciding that this is what you want to do permanently, right? So you continue growing up and it sounds like in your family, but at some point you're like, I either want to do this or some people who are children of actors are like, this stinks. They're always struggling. They're always stressed. The highs don't outweigh the lows, et cetera, et cetera. So I guess at what point in your life did you realize like, I really want to try this?

[9:44] Casey Likes: Oh man. I mean, I just had so many moments where it was just a slow climb because when you do it from when you're that young, you want to do it and then you kind of have to reaffirm yourself like multiple times and it still happens to this day where you just kind of reaffirm. Is this exactly what I need to be or want to be doing? But I will say I credit a lot to two things. One thing is that if you want to be an actor, you have to be crazy a little bit. There is a craziness level you have to have. The second thing I'm going to credit it with is my family and my family had both of those things. They were supportive and they were a little crazy. Basically, there was a point in high school where I'm sorry to all of the good students listening to this, but I wasn't doing well in math and I was in the middle of doing Les Miserables and I literally looked at my grades one day and I was like, I had missed multiple days of school.

I was behind on work because I was so tired from doing Les Mis and I wanted to rest to make sure that my performance was good because it's not a role you should be singing at 17. I looked at my grades and I just go, man, I really hope this is worth it. I hope I'm doing this for a reason. My parents genuinely around that time were like, don't worry about it. You're never going to need calculus. I go, but what if I do? They're like, you're not. You're going to be an actor or you're going to be... At the time, I wanted to do filmmaking as well and I still do. They were like, you won't need it for what you're going to do. I'm like, but what if I can't do what I want to do? They had this crazy confidence in me and that's what you have to have to be an actor.

You have to blindly just walk into the fog and hope that you're going to make it out the other side. I did end up doing this show. I didn't end up doing super well in math, but that show ended up being the show that got me to the Jimmy Awards, which ended up changing my life. That was one of the many moments that was like, oh, I think maybe I could be able to do this and I won't need calculus.

[12:20] Alan Seales: Next time you tell that story, you have to say that you were doing poorly in math and you knew that it wasn't for you when every answer was 24601.

[12:26] Casey Likes: That's good.

[12:37] Alan Seales: You said the Jimmy Awards changed your life. How so?

[12:40] Casey Likes: Yeah. The Jimmy Awards, if listeners didn't know, is a high school musical theater competition. It's hosted by the Broadway League, who hosts the Tony Awards. They call it internally the Junior Tony Awards, which is a far too prestigiously hilarious name for what it is. It's amazing. It is a really, really sweet competition and mostly, more than a competition, it is a week where close to 100 kids from all around the country, two nominees from every state. Sometimes there are multiple programs in each state, so it's like two or four nominees from every state come to New York and they get to learn from Broadway professionals for a week. And then at the end of the week, they compete to be best actor and best actress. It was a huge deal for me.

[13:35] Casey Likes: Growing up, I always watched the videos and all that stuff, and I wanted to go. And I finally got chosen to go by ASU GAMMAGE, which was my regional program. At the time, it was just beginning to... Even though I think we were the 11th year of its existence, around that time it was just beginning to bubble. You would hear stories of kids going to the Jimmies and they're getting noticed by agents or Broadway shows or whatever. So I went, and then at the end of that week, we did the competition and I ended up becoming a finalist. I was told that after I finaled, I just started getting a lot of emails from different shows that wanted me to audition, and then different agents. It really changed my life.

One of those was Almost Famous, which ended up being my Broadway debut. Yeah. I was just looking up when Andrew Barth Feldman won, and that was 2018, the year before. So I feel like his success launching into Dear Evan Hansen before graduating high school was probably what helped really catapult a lot of everything else since then. Even Renee Rapp too, the success that she's found. It's phenomenal. And I don't think in all seriousness that age makes a damn bit of difference when you're looking at the talent across all this stuff, because being able to perform, being able to sing, the it factor, right? You talk about people having the it factor and people who don't have the it factor, they don't understand what that is.

I've seen that in children. I've seen it in young adults. I've seen it in the elderly. When you got it, you got it. And I think though the hard part is, and this is often why, aside from child labor laws, forget that for a second, why you cast older people as younger, usually like your 20s to play teens or whatnot, because of a work ethic and the ability to show up and take it seriously. So speaking along those lines then, learning the work ethic, and I think it takes a special person to have this quality, right? The quality of being talented, but not being kind of a jerk about it. Being able to show up and be like, I'm here to learn. I'm as good as I am and I still want to get better. And being the person that others want to work with the next time is crucial, crucial. So did that come from your mom? Did you learn that on set in a show?

[16:15] Casey Likes: Yeah. I learned that from a lot of people. I mean, definitely from my mom. That's definitely the first person, of course. It was nice because it was like growing up with someone who was in the industry, they kind of prepare you for the worst and then you kind of get there and you're like, oh, okay. I'm glad I was prepared for the worst because it's actually not... There's some things that are easier, some things that are harder, of course. Nothing can prepare you for it. But along those lines of being a good person to work with, you get taught, you're like growing up, you're like you have to be kind to work with, you have to... All of those things that you just mentioned. And then you get in the industry and you realize that there's a few people who haven't been taught that lesson and they're still working.

So it actually makes you kind of stick out even more because you are following by the rules, I guess. It's always a shame to kind of see some people like that. I haven't had a lot of run-ins with people like that. I was very lucky with my family in Almost Famous and Back to the Future has been great as well. And I did a little run with Outsiders as well and that was a great experience as well. But it's nice that my family prepared me for that. The theaters I worked at growing up, Grease Paint, all of them, they prepared me for a lot.

[17:34] Alan Seales: And Anika Larson, your mom in Almost Famous.

[17:36] Casey Likes: Yes.

[17:37] Alan Seales: God, it's talking about people that you want to work with the next time. She's amazing. Have you interviewed her?

[17:42] Casey Likes: Yeah, I have. I have actually.

[17:43] Alan Seales: Oh, that's great. I got to listen to that one.

[17:46] Casey Likes: Yeah. And then I worked with her on her... What was it? Broadway Gives Back, Green Alliance. We did a campaign last year for Earth... No, was it last year or this year? God, all the years are running together. Whatever Earth Month was, I guess it was this year, 2023. I worked with her intensely for a little while. And just, again, like you say, it's family. Just nice person, somebody that... Your chosen family, somebody that you do want to work with in multiple ways. I interviewed her for Almost Famous, and then a few weeks later found out we were going to work together for her Broadway Green Alliance stuff. And it was just so much fun. It was so much fun to work with her. And anyway, I can't say enough good things.

[18:30] Casey Likes: She's one of those people that was taught the rules young, and then she just kept it up. The first day of rehearsal, when I was 17, I think she asked to go to lunch with me on either that first or second day. It was just great. I'm sitting there, I'm 17 years old, and I'm across the table from a Tony nominee, and she's kind of given me the lay of the land. She's like, there's going to be a lot of people who are going to do this or this and this, and you have to stand up for yourself, and also just come in, do your work, do this, and blah, blah, blah. It was really great. She, along with a lot of those people in that company, just kind of raised me. It's not to say that I didn't come in and crap the bed a couple of times.

I appreciate your kindness of saying that it's necessary to be a good person, and hopefully people want to work with me. I hope so, but there's a couple times when I wasn't able to be that best self. I was 17, I was still learning, and I appreciate that whole gang for kind of sticking with me through that.

[19:45] Casey Likes: As opposed to Roger Bart, who just called me up and was like, nope, that guy's a jerk. Don't work with him. Don't listen to anything he says.

[19:53] Alan Seales: Oh, man. Well, ditto, Roger.

[19:58] Alan Seales: We're going to be right back.

[20:07] Alan Seales: Man, I can't wait to talk about Back to the Future, but I want to continue on Almost Famous for a second, because that had a shorter life, I think, than a lot of people have expected on Broadway. As a Broadway debut, where you're in the lead, was it tough for you because I feel like having your first show, a major Broadway show, close, and I've never had, I will say, the fortune of having this experience of being on Broadway and then having a show close, because I think that is a fortune experience that most people will never have. Was that at 17? Were you 17 when it closed, too? You said you were 17 when you started rehearsals, but I guess like 17, 18 or whatnot.

[20:45] Casey Likes: I was 17 when I did it in San Diego in 2019, and then we were supposed to go to Broadway the next year, and the pandemic, obviously.

[20:54] Alan Seales: Right, right. So you're still like in your 1920, right?

[20:57] Casey Likes: Yeah, I just turned 21 when it closed.

[20:59] Alan Seales: Yeah, so, right, because, God, that was just last season.

[21:03] Casey Likes: Yeah, I know.

[21:05] Alan Seales: Knowing, I guess, is it hard to not take that personally? Because at the end of the day, it is a business, and it's coming out of a pandemic, which I attribute to a lot of the shows back then closing too early. You have limited runs that still closed early just because people were afraid to literally sit in a crowd of people.

[21:23] Casey Likes: Yeah, no, I mean, you really phrased it super well, man. I mean, the whole process was really personal for me. I mean, it was just like, first of all, the story is about a young kid, not even 18 yet, leaves his senior year of high school to go on the road and basically live his dream with his personal rock stars. So what I was doing was leaving my senior year, going and living my dream on the road with my personal rock stars. I wasn't 18 yet. So already, I was set up for emotional disaster. Then it just got even deeper past that because the pandemic hit, and then all of us became just familial at that point. It was such a long road. And I even came in kind of late into the game to get it to Broadway.

I did all the workshops past 2019. And yeah, I mean, I'm not going to lie, they were prepared for this thing to rock. I mean, it rocked the West Coast. It broke records. It got rave reviews. And I think it was just a shock to everyone's system. And the most personal part about it for me was the reviews, because it was, first of all, shocking. And second of all, they were very kind to me, which I, for a little bit, wore a little bit as a badge of honor. And I was like, oh, they really liked me. And then after a while, it became this thing for me where I was like, it felt way bigger than me. It was like the weight of this show was sitting on someone's shoulders that was not equipped. And it doesn't even matter because it's like, at the end of the day, I liked the show, and a lot of people did like the show.

So I shouldn't have focused so much on the things that they liked or didn't like in the reviews. But because they liked me, if I was ill one day and I couldn't be in the show, my mind would just run rampant of like, oh my God, I hope that they still like the show. And my understudies were fantastic. So it was a ridiculous thing to think about. But it was very personal doing the show. It was like every night, I was letting people in to basically my last three years of existence from my adolescence onto being 21 years old. But what was not personal about it was when we announced we were closing, which was very weird because I got the call. And after I hung up, I was like, oh, this was always possible.

And we just never considered it. It was always possible that the show just wasn't going to do well. And everyone had prepared me for everything about that Broadway experience except for that. And I was like, as soon as I announced it, I was like, oh, it weirdly gave me this little catharsis of like, it's not as personal as you think it is. It's really just a business. I know the show is about you. You think that. But it's really not. And it's literally the same show if you're in it or you're not in it. And people are going to get another job after this. And weirdly, it kind of was a little bit more relieving, knowing that it wasn't something I did. I hope that all makes sense.

[25:15] Alan Seales: It does. And it's surprising to me that it kind of had the opposite effect on you. That because, well, thinking whether misguided or not, that you were carrying the show, and Ali does to a certain extent anyway, that when it was closing, it made it less personal. That's really interesting. I'm going to think about this.

[25:38] Casey Likes: Yeah, I'm glad you asked about it, because I don't think I've ever actually talked about it on any forum. But yeah, it was kind of a very interesting experience. I don't know how to explain it other than how I just did. Well, thank you. I think it's really interesting. Okay. I will say, I did see the show. I went and saw it, because once we announced we were closing, I was like, screw it, man. I've done this for three years. I'm calling out of a show. And I saw it with both my understudies, because I called out twice. I got to see Andrew, who was fantastic. And Daniel was fantastic as well. And when I was watching the show, I just, it gave me so much relief. And I was like, damn, I wish I had done this earlier.

I wish I was able to see the show from the outside and be able to be like, okay, my opinions on the show are enough, and it doesn't really matter. But it was weirdly that opposite effect, where when it was successful, and when moments of the show were pointed out as successful, I took it more personally than when it just was taken away from me. Because one's an opinion, one's an opinion on me, and then one's a business decision.

[27:06] Alan Seales: Yeah. Well, you're batting 1000 for being in Broadway shows that are movie musical adaptations.

[27:10] Casey Likes: Yes. Yeah.

[27:10] Casey Likes: Back To The Future is a property, and it is, it's a property, it's a legacy. And I wonder if this is going to be one of those things, you know, like 20 years from now, like Wicked, right, or Hamilton or whatever, where it's going to be so popular and run in so many places and be around for so long that the originals are going to be remembered forever, like you and Roger, and then everybody else who falls in behind is going to be part of this legacy and this brotherhood.

[27:39] Alan Seales: Because you talk about, I just interviewed Katie Rose Clark for Merrily, and she held the record for playing Glinda the longest on Broadway. And we talked about the sisterhood and the family that becomes of just sharing the stress of that role, right, and the pressure. So, Back To The Future being such an iconic property that so many people of now Broadway ticket-buying age want to have presented to them in a certain way. Is that same kind of pressure, no pressure at all, different kind of pressure? Because you're stepping into something that everybody thinks they already know.

[28:20] Casey Likes: Absolutely. I mean, it's absolutely a lot of pressure. I mean, that's the basis. But it's also, I felt more internal pressure about the most bizarre things, where it was like, when I got the job, it was less about how do I come up to Michael J. Fox, and it was more about how am I going to do this job again? Like, I was just, they had called me three days or four days before Almost Famous had closed. And that was just like, as we just spoke about, just so much of me in that. And I just, I was struggling with some health things at the time, and I just didn't know. I was like, when I got it, the pressure was really on about, like, are you ready to get back on the horse, like, immediately, and do the not leaving the stage thing for two and a half hours again, and, you know, sing at the top of your range, and get emotional and not get emotional and be funny and, you know, turn that on every day.

Are you ready to do that? And it's like, of course, I would love to. I mean, it's been my dream my whole life. But then there's, you know, there's sometimes your body and your mind is telling you, you know, you can't do things. And it took a lot of talk to my family and doctors and a million other people, and I finally just, you know, pulled the trigger and decided, I was like, I'm gonna meet it there. I'm gonna get there. So it just took months and months of training and getting ready to hop back on the horse again. But the pressure for the Michael J. Fox thing, of it being this huge property, didn't really come until, honestly, until we started, until I started seeing people at the door, the stage door, all of that, it was just huge.

And that kind of blew me away. There was also this comment of this kid on Facebook that said, when is Casey Likes Leaving so I can be Marty McFly on Broadway? And he was a sweet kid. I think he said in his bio, he was on the spectrum, and, you know, I just, I read that comment, and I just, I was like, wow, this actually, this is bigger than anything I've experienced before. Because Almost Famous has a following, but this is one of, you know, maybe the third biggest movie of all time, behind maybe, like, Star Wars and Jurassic Park, so it's like, yeah.

[30:47] Alan Seales: Yeah, it's international, and that's what's, I think, really, it's kind of what Broadway really needs right now. It's, talking about this with a friend of mine the other day, is that, you know, obviously not an original story, but maybe not even an original concept. I don't know how often time travel with technology is done on stage, but the fact that it's coming in such a grand, perfect fashion, with a story that, and music that everyone everywhere can recognize and identify with, is something that we need, kind of, to pull the industry, or keep the industry out of the rut that it's always threatening to fall back into, that I think, like we were talking about, Almost Famous, I think was a victim of.

That, you know, COVID's always out there now, it's going to be as prevalent as the flu, I think, right? It's just every, every, there's always going to be people that get sick from it. And so now, we just got to get used to it, and I think we need more of the Back to the Futures, and we need this sort of big budget, big story, big action, yeah, this big action show to bring people back and put butts in seats, especially tourists, right? Because they're the bulk of the ticket buys, I think.

[32:07] Casey Likes: I agree. I was just saying recently, I was like, I remember when my mom was telling me about when, what was it, I think it was Lion King, when Lion King came out, and they were doing their out-of-town tryout, and nobody had seen it. So, when the animals start coming through the orchestra and all that, it was just like, blew people's minds. I mean, just like, full-grown adults just bursting into tears and stuff like that. And that happens, like, it's like, there was a moment at the end of the show that you know, you've seen it, and I don't want to spoil it, but I get to see people while it's happening. And it's just like, full-grown adults just like, beaming, or screaming, or crying, or whatever, and it's just like, it's so great to be a part of something magical like that, especially after, you know, there's so much criticism last year of so much minimalism happening.

It's nice to be a part of something that's not, and I don't have any issue with minimalism, but you know, it does seem like there's a little bit of an appetite for something big and very Broadway, to get people back in Broadway.

[33:17] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I've always been a very vocal fan of Ann Juliet, for the exact same reason. It's such an original story. And people here, I mean, there's all sorts of different kinds of jukebox musicals, and we don't need to get into that in this episode, but there's like, the jukebox musical that tells the story of the person who wrote the music, aka Neil Diamond, beautiful noise. And then there's Jagged Little Pill, which uses all of one album, original story, and then there's like, Ann Juliet, which has, you know, there's so many different types of jukebox musicals. Anyway, we'll just put that aside, different episode. Back to the Future is-

[33:55] Casey Likes: I would like to be on that episode, by the way. I love that.

[33:59] Alan Seales: Okay, we can do a jukebox musical discussion roundup, maybe that'll be episode 300.

[34:04] Casey Likes: Yes, I'm into that.

[34:07] Alan Seales: Okay, so yeah, Back to the Future, when I first heard it was a musical, again, it's one of those things where I said, eyebrow raise? Does this need to be a musical? And then I saw it, I was like, this is why it's a musical. It's incredible. And then again, how are they going to do time travel? How are they going to do the DeLorean? How are they, how are they, how are they?

[34:30] Casey Likes: And it's sort of the same thing with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, where you're like, that needs magic, that needs illusions, that needs all sorts of things. And then ironically, the same guy did the illusions for both shows. So there you go. That's how that happened. God, I want to ask so many things about the DeLorean. And I know, tell me as much as you can. I don't want to have spoilers. And I know you can't give away cigarettes. Ah, big sigh. But I was reading somewhere else, too, that the car is actually pretty cramped inside, right?

[34:59] Casey Likes: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the things I can tell you is that maybe a little bit of a secret is that it is smaller. It's two thirds the size of a normal car. But on stage, it looks like a full size DeLorean. And it is a little cramped. There is a specific way to get in and out of it. There is a specific way to sit in it. I will probably be the tallest Marty there will ever be because I don't think you can fit in the car if you're taller than me.

[35:26] Alan Seales: How tall are you?

[35:27] Casey Likes: I'm five, nine and a half, I say.

[35:31] Alan Seales: I'm six, one. There goes my chances.

[35:35] Casey Likes: People say that I don't ever want to get caught lying. I don't want someone to come up with a ruler. So I say five, nine and a half. But people say I should say five, ten. And I'm like, I'm not going to be caught lying. But yeah, no, I definitely am the tallest Marty they've had. And I don't think they're going to go taller than me.

[35:53] Alan Seales: Probably just can't.

[35:55] Casey Likes: You literally can't. They literally they'd have to open that car up, which is no way, because it's all filled with gadgets and the most amazing things to make the car do what it does. And it does so much and moves in directions across the stage that I didn't think was possible at that speed with your standard automation. Do you know if they if they invented any new tech for this? Or was it like using kind of a combination of other things that already was existed out there?

[36:24] Alan Seales: I don't know the answer to that. I know that like, there's never been something on stage that's done all the things that this car does. Because, you know, other than moving, it's also got, you know, the lights and all the smoke and the sounds and all the stuff that that are within the car. I don't I don't quite know the answer to that.

[36:44] Casey Likes: When it's on the ground, and we'll just leave it there. Leave that at that.

[36:48] Alan Seales: So the Back to the Future franchise, the musical, I mean, the movie, did you watch it at all when you were a kid, like being so so much into musical theater? Did you did it influence you?

[36:59] Casey Likes: Yeah, I did. I did. Like, I'm, I'm a child of the 80s. So it was one of the things that I look back so fondly that in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were my two trios of muses. Back to the Future and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were my two trilogies that I still remember so fondly.

[37:19] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, no, it was a huge part of my, my, I'm a filmmaker as well. So it was a huge part of my life. And my mom was a child of the 80s as well. And while she's a child of the 70s, but but you know, her teenage years, I think our first date was Back to the Future. And she was always comparing me to Michael J. Fox growing up. So I watched that movie a lot. And I just love, I love that type of film. I love the Spielberg-y, magical films. And Rob Zemeckis is just, you know, he's just, he's just amazing at that stuff. He's done it with so many films, Forrest Gump, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. These are just magical films, just like E.T. is, which is my favorite movie, by the way.

[38:06] Casey Likes: To answer your question, long, long, long form.

[38:08] Alan Seales: Well, then, when you got the call, you're in the middle of, of closing Almost Famous, you get the call to start, was it, did they offer you the role? Or was it a call to come audition? But then you get the call. And again, did you already know about it? And, and, and were comfortable with the idea? Or were you like, what the hell? It was Back to the Future, the musical?

[38:28] Casey Likes: Yeah, I've never followed a show from its conception. But this one, I did. I heard, I heard about it announced in, I think, 2018. And then I followed the Instagram page pretty shortly after that, probably around 2019. And I always had this kind of thought in the back of my mind, I was like, wouldn't that be so fun to be Marty someday? And I was like, Oh, maybe one day, I'll go out to London and do it. And I never even considered it would come to Broadway. But, and even if it did, at the time that the concept of going to Broadway, and being a person to originate a role was just impossible. So I did, I actually, this is one of the only musicals I've ever followed, but it never really was something I considered would actually be a possibility.

[39:12] Alan Seales: We're gonna be right back.

[39:14] Casey Likes: When they called, it was actually a very similar story to Michael J. Fox when he was in the film. They called me to audition in November. And I was pretty set with Almost Famous. And I was planning on finishing out my contract, which would have conflicted with this. Even at that, I wasn't super like, keen on like, you know, jumping, even if I could have gotten out, which I wouldn't have been able to, um, yeah, I would have, you know, been doing double duty rehearsing during the day and doing the show at night. And if you've seen Almost Famous, and Back to the Future, there's just no way. It's just an impossible. Yeah, it's an impossible gig. I mean, both of them are impossible separately, let alone together. So, um,

[40:00] Alan Seales: You need something like a time machine?

[40:03] Casey Likes: Yeah, yeah, you need a time machine and a lot of electrolytes. I just, I couldn't do it. And I wrote them a very nice letter because I was just like, I'm you guys have inspired me my entire life. And I'm just honored that you would ask me to audition. So thank you. And then the day after Back to the Future, or Almost Famous said they were going to close Back to the Future called and said, Hey, so remember when you said and I was like, okay, yes, I'll come in. So I came in in the middle of a eight show week, I think it was a couple days after Christmas. And, and I did one callback, one callback, I went back in to meet the music director later, because he wasn't at the callback.

[40:46] Casey Likes: It was one audition, one callback, all the same day. They offered it to me a few days before the show closed. I was keen to it. I was excited about it. I'd seen some clips and I thought what they were doing with it was really smart. A lot of people ask me, why do you do these decisions in your career? Why did you do this? Why did you do that? Frankly, man, it's just dope. There's not much else to say other than Back to the Future the musical is dope. It's really nice to be able to be a part of something that's already moving. It's nice to be a part of a fan base that's already passionate about it. It's nice to be a part of something that's bigger than you. I wish I had realized that even earlier on Almost Famous, but they're not there for you. They're there for these characters that they really love. That's relieving. It's really nice to know that it's not all on you. You just come in and give them what they love and they're happy.

[41:49] Alan Seales: Was it difficult or encouraged to find this balance between the Casey and the Michael J. Fox? Because there are some lines where you kind of do the Michael J. Fox thing. It's very obvious, but is that intentional? God, the way that you play with Roger Bart on stage. I've seen the show twice and the second time it got better. I think you actually cracked. You made each other crack one night in one of the things you're doing. But yeah, that balance, was that difficult?

[42:28] Casey Likes: Yeah. Thanks for asking, man. Come to think of it, I don't think they ever told me to. I think John Rando, the director, after I got the role, sent me an email of just a few things to start working on. It was like, guitar on this song, and then this on this. He did say watch Family Ties and watch the movie again. Just get a grip on Michael and remind yourself of a little bit of what he did. I think that was the last time we talked about Michael's performance. I even asked at some point in rehearsal, where on the line of Michael to me do you want me to sit? He said, whatever you're doing now, which is basically what I did in my callback. I didn't watch the movie before I did my callback. I was just kind of going off of memory.

Since then, I've only watched the movie once. I don't know if I'll watch it again before I'm done with the contract, because now I'm in this groove of middle ground between the two. At the end of the day, 90% of your audience came for Michael. 90% of them came for Michael, and then 10% of them don't want you to do Michael at all. I'm just trying to pull a rabbit out of the hat and make both of those groups happy. Hopefully it works. I'm trying to do something that's really making me happy. I love Michael's performance in that. I also know that there's stuff that I just can't do like Michael, so I'm going to do it like me. At the end of the day, the prerequisites for what Marty McFly is, is not extremely deep and super hard to understand.

He's a rebel kid. He doesn't understand his family. He's an artist. He loves his girlfriend a lot. He has a really deep connection with his best friend, who's Doc Brown. Those are the things you have to remember. As long as you sit in those parameters, it doesn't really matter how much Michael you put into it. Just for me personally, I like to remind people of Michael in certain moments.

[44:40] Alan Seales: I think it's brilliant. It's just the right amount, because I think it would be a trope that would get irritating if every line sounded exactly like him. Because you have to make it your own. Otherwise, you're not being you.

[44:55] Casey Likes: I agree. I agree. Otherwise, you'd be an impersonation. At that point, then it really is a theme park show. It's already a ride of a show. At that point, it's just like... That's no hate to theme park shows, because my mom did theme park shows, too. I will probably also do a theme park show. That's not what this is. Broadway wants to have something expanded and different and worth the price of admission. I'm trying to give you something different.

[45:23] Alan Seales: Great job. We're going to end here with a little bit of Back to the Future movie trivia. Let's go. See if you know these fun questions. First question. There's five of them. This one's pretty much a gimme, but what year was the original movie released?

[45:40] Casey Likes: 1985.

[45:41] Alan Seales: Correct. What was Marty McFly's original last name in one of the first drafts of the script?

[45:48] Casey Likes: Wow. Wow. I don't think I know this. This is good.

[45:53] Alan Seales: Marty McDermott.

[45:54] Casey Likes: What?

[45:55] Alan Seales: Yep. McDermott.

[45:59] Casey Likes: I'm good with what they landed with.

[46:00] Alan Seales: Yep. Me, too. Okay. Back to the Future was almost not the name of the movie. What did the producers want it to be called?

[46:10] Casey Likes: Space Man from Pluto.

[46:11] Alan Seales: Yes. You're the only one to get that so far.

[46:14] Casey Likes: Yes. I love that stuff. I think that is so funny.

[46:18] Alan Seales: Space Man from Pluto. Okay. Question four. How many times was Back to the Future the script rejected by studios?

[46:26] Casey Likes: I'm not sure if I know the actual number, but I know pretty much everyone turned them down.

[46:31] Alan Seales: Yeah. Let's go Price is Right. Highest guess without going over.

[46:36] Casey Likes: Ten.

[46:37] Alan Seales: Forty-four.

[46:38] Casey Likes: Oh, my God. Wow.

[46:41] Alan Seales: Forty-frickin'-four. All right. I bet you'll get this last one, too. In the first act scene where Marty's band, the Pinheads, is auditioning for the high school battle of the bands contest, who plays the schoolteacher who cuts the band short, announcing, hold it, fellas. I'm afraid you're just too darn loud.

[46:57] Casey Likes: Huey Lewis.

[46:58] Alan Seales: That's right. Huey Lewis. Fun fact. He gave me a note on Power of Love about the timing of it after he saw me opening 9th.

[47:05] Casey Likes: No kidding. What did he say?

[47:07] Alan Seales: He was just like, you know, it was just mostly rhythmic stuff about like, after you sing part of the chorus, when you hit that, or the second verse, that power of love will keep you home at night. He really wanted that to hit fast and not like back phrased at all.

[47:26] Casey Likes: Interesting. So he gave you the note because that's how you were doing it. He was like, no, that's not how you do it, kid.

[47:31] Alan Seales: Yeah. And he felt really nervous to give it to me. He was like, should I? It was through the music director. He never gave it to me personally, but he was like, I feel really nervous to give this because I feel really bad. And I was like, please and thank you, give me a note. It's your song. I want to do him happy. And then he came back a couple weeks later and he said, you took the note. And he was so happy.

[47:53] Casey Likes: Yeah. Oh, and there's something else, too, that I was reading that they had, the original team had Michael J. Fox take guitar lessons because they wanted when he played to actually look real. And it just occurred to me as I was reading this, which was not more than a couple of weeks ago, that as a kid, I always believed he was playing.

[48:14] Alan Seales: Wow. Yeah. I mean, I wonder, I bet there's some YouTube videos like playing what he's actually playing, like how close he is. But he did get really close, like watching it back. I've now learned the song for myself. And there are moments where he's really actually doing it. So, yeah, yeah.

[48:33] Casey Likes: Have you seen on Instagram, there's a social media account that does like famous dances, but without any of the music and it's just the sound effects. So like one of the recent ones.

[48:45] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like it was like Mick Jagger, Mick Jagger dancing without any music. It's like.

[48:57] Casey Likes: Yeah. And the students squeaking on the floor.

[48:59] Alan Seales: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I imagine one of those videos would be about. Michael J. Fox playing like me.

[49:08] Casey Likes: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the beginning was great. He's definitely playing the beginning. But I mean, frankly, dog, I don't even know the solo very well. So it's he's he's probably doing better than me on the solo.

[49:15] Alan Seales: Well, I think it looks pretty real. I was actually going to ask you if you played guitar for real, but it sounds like you had to learn for this.

[49:20] Casey Likes: Oh, no, I've known I've known since I was eight.

[49:25] Alan Seales: Oh, really? Really? So you're. Yeah. So you're I guess you can play Power of Love.

[49:28] Casey Likes: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[49:30] Alan Seales: Oh, no, it's not. It's not Power of Love. Right. It's Johnny B. Goode. Johnny B. Goode.

[49:36] Casey Likes: Yeah. Yeah. I can play Johnny B. Goode as well. But I learned Power of Love because I do it in the audition.

[49:40] Alan Seales: Right. Right. Oh, that's cool.

[49:41] Casey Likes: Power of Love is easy. Johnny B. Goode is easy up until a point and then then it just goes crazy. But I I'm doing as much of it as I can because I'm not going to disappoint my other guitar people.

[49:54] Alan Seales: Do they do they have you do they have the guitar plugged in like you're actually playing over the speaker or it's just you're playing, playing, but we don't hear it?

[50:01] Casey Likes: I'm I'm I know I'm playing. I've practiced it at home. I don't know how much of it is me and how much of it is our guy downstairs Aurelien. But I know I learned it.

[50:11] Alan Seales: Like, is it it's connected to the sound system, fully tuned like it's it's set a real guitar. I know it's plugged in.

[50:16] Casey Likes: I don't know. I don't know what it's plugged into.

[50:23] Alan Seales: It's plugged into like a speaker in the alley.

[50:26] Casey Likes: Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[50:27] Alan Seales: Walks by like, the hell is that?

[50:29] Casey Likes: Wow, that sounds horrible.

[50:30] Alan Seales: That's a horrible rendition of Johnny B. Goode.

[50:33] Casey Likes: What the hell is that?

[50:35] Alan Seales: No, but yeah, yeah. Credit credit to Aurelien. He's amazing.

[50:39] Casey Likes: He's a great guitarist.

[50:42] Alan Seales: That's so cool.

[50:43] Casey Likes: Yeah, I that was one of the things that that like when the full body experiences of the show is like when you hit that the downbeat of the overture of just like, yeah, again, it's these iconic songs that you just grew up with. So many people just know because they permeated every corner of the earth, you know?

[51:03] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[51:04] Casey Likes: Yeah.

[51:05] Alan Seales: So now we'll wrap up with the three standard closing questions that I ask everybody across my now almost 300 episodes. The first one is, thank you. The first one, very simply, is just what motivates you?

[51:19] Casey Likes: Hmm. Um, it's really, uh, I think it's it's always the people who made me, you know, it's always the people who made me. I think just like the people, my family, people who I did theater with growing up. I'm just always trying to make them proud. And I'm so excited to always share stuff with them.

[51:36] Alan Seales: What advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[51:44] Casey Likes: To never stop working on your craft. Because once you think that you are the cat's meow, you probably aren't. So not not not to not have confidence about yourself. But I mean, I still take voice lessons all the time. I still need to improve my dancing. And there's always stuff to work on.

[52:02] Alan Seales: Yeah, it keeps you humble and it keeps you good.

[52:05] Casey Likes: Well, now I want to challenge you to learn the to learn and play without anybody covering you the full Johnny B. Goode, including the solo.

[52:14] Alan Seales: I'm dead serious.

[52:15] Casey Likes: I actually I'm I'm close. And I'm pretty sure that like by the end of this, I I will be able to have it all down. Because every night it actually is a goal to me to like literally get every single note.

[52:23] Alan Seales: That's cool. Good on you for not trying to fake it. I think that's pretty great.

[52:30] Casey Likes: No, no, I know. I mean, they'll come for me in the in the comments in the reviews, too, if I didn't. Like all he's doing is strumming, but it's a guitar solo. That makes no sense. I went to review one review one day, not not about me, but they were like, aren't we past the day and age where where people have to fake instruments on Broadway? And I think the guy was playing like 20 instruments in the show. I was like, oh, my gosh, give him a break. Jesus Christ. But no, I mean, I've I've learned that, man, I if if if he can do 20 million instruments, I can at least do the guitar.

[53:10] Alan Seales: There you go. All right. Last question. This is the hardest one. If you can only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[53:18] Casey Likes: Limits.

[53:19] Alan Seales: There you go. Period. End of subject. It's it. It's it never gets old. It's the greatest show of all time.

[53:25] Casey Likes: All right. You can see it online on the social media games at just Casey likes everywhere on all the things. And I'm sure I'm going to have to get more into tick tock because we have tick tockers in our cast.

[53:39] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah.

[53:40] Casey Likes: Yeah. I mean, it it brought Beetlejuice back from the dead. You can you got to find some way of like duetting with with the tick tockers.

[53:49] Alan Seales: Yeah, that'll be good. That'll be fun. Um, yeah, I'm on threads, Instagram and tick tock and Facebook theater underscore podcast is my name there. I leave a rating interview wherever you're listening now. And the most thanks of all goes to Casey likes, who has given us the greatest conversation I've had all week. Thank you, sir.

[54:11] Casey Likes: Thank you, Alan. Thanks for everything you do. This is so great.