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-the first thing i saw upon walking backstage was one of the boxes of peanut brittle. it just sat there on a shelf in the hallway

-the guide told us that all the set pieces and props were originally from the broadway production and later sent to hamburg, since they were closing around the time hamburg was preparing to open

-it took hamburg five years to prepare for this musical. five years

-apparently bob gale came here to see the show and "expressed surprise that hamburg handled the special effects so well". He also once again confirmed that there will never be a reboot/another sequel/etc

-the guide (who was one of the people from the prop department) also told us that he never worked on a musical before that had this many small props. he seemed a bit overwhelmed by the amount of props he has to handle

-he also pointed out the hooks on the set pieces. They were used during the broadway production to hang the sets above the stage and lower them down as needed but since hamburg has more space next to the stage they don't hang them but just roll them in from the sides instead. the hooks are still there though

-I got to stand in doc's lab!! obviously we weren't allowed to touch anything and we didn't get to take any pictures either but it was so amazing!

-the delorean was there as well of course! they put a parking sign above the spot where they keep it and declared it the "flux capacitor charging spot"

-the guide then told us something that puzzled me. as far as i know the delorean couldn't actually drive on its own on broadway and had to be moved around (which is why they made sure that the wheels didn't actually touch the ground). now the guide told us that this very same delorean can now apparently drive on its own, using its own wheels, and they move it around on stage using a remote control. ??? but that wasn't the case for broadway right? did they change something about the car? is there anyone who's as insane about this show as i am and knows more about that?

-anyway. they also had a list detailing all the transitions between the scenes and which set pieces have to be moved at what time. there was one transition that ended with doc's lab being on stage and someone wrote "Hurry up!!" next to it with red marker. i wonder if there's a story behind that

-they have 29 cast members from 11 different countries. because the cast is so diverse they mostly speak english backstage

-there was an entire shelf full of water bottles for everyone in the cast. one of those which probably belongs to raphael groß (Marty) was labeled with four different ways to spell "raphi". for whatever reason

-speaking of water bottles, the guide also told us that since marty doesn't really get to leave the stage during the show they needed to sneak in opportunities for him to drink water. i already knew about the water in the pepsi can during the dinner scene (bc casey likes pointed this out) but at least in hamburg they also put a water bottle inside the dumpster that marty gets thrown into by biff's gang so he can drink some water while in there. just imagine lorraine and george trying to fight off biff while marty is in there chilling and enjoying his break

-they keep the stage at about 18 degrees and also very humid to prevent everyone's throats from becoming too dry

-we got to peek into the quick change booths and i spotted a trans pride flag right above marty's costumes (trans marty confirmed???)

-later that day we got to see the show again! another funfact about german theatre is that we don't get little inserts in our playbills to tell us if someone isn't on tonight (in fact, we don't get playbills at all) and I didn't see a screen or anything in the lobby telling us about tonight's cast (like they did in bochum with starlight express) so imagine my surprise when the show started and i slowly realized that the understudies were on for pretty much every major role that night (biff's actor was there and so were the ones for jennifer and goldie wilson, but everyone else wasn't)

-though i gotta say that i really liked this "other" marty. raphael groß has a pretty confident approach to the role but his understudy played him like. a mess. kinda pathetic teen running from one crisis to the next. almost dropping stuff several times. calling lorraine "mama" instead of "mum". actually freaking out when doc pretends to be affected by the radiation and running over to him to make sure he's really fine. accidentally calling doc "dad". audibly sobbing when lorraine kisses him. tearfully pleading with the delorean to turn back on at the end because "No, please, doc needs me..." During one of the many times marty falls over he once threw himself to the ground with so much force that he slid across the stage and almost fell into the orchestra pit (the actor didn't break character but the conductor looked absolutely terrified for a second) so yeah. 10/10 perfect casting

-the actors stuck pretty close to the script and there wasn't much improvising except for the model scene for some reason which turned out hilarious. it started off normally with doc showing marty the model until marty suddenly asks him when exactly doc had the time to build all of that considering everything that's been going on. doc somewhat awkwardly dodges the question and instead redirects marty's attention to the fact that he even used marty's coke bottle for his model. and marty for some reason gets really happy and excited about that. "You're right! That's MY bottle right there!" which leads to this exchange:

Doc, proudly: "Now, I suppose you'd consider this to be 'heavy' as well?"

Marty: "Uh, yeah. You didn't paint it though. If it was painted it'd be like super heavy."

Doc: "Ah." (pause) "I still don't get it."

then Doc continues to explain his plan and after mentioning that marty will return to 1985 he raises his arms up and cheers loudly. Marty does it back at him and they continue with that for a bit before Marty turns to the audience and gestures expectantly so we all raised our arms up as well and cheered with them.

-there's also a small change in "for the dreamers". they translated doc's line about "people just took advantage of me" as "people were always laughing at me" and he also pretty desperately tells marty that "i was never actually insane." poor doc has finally found one (1) friend and he's terrified that marty is going to listen to the rumors about him and leave him again :(