“Frankly, I lost the Jimmys, and that’s fine,” says Casey Likes, who is now headlining his second Broadway musical in a year — ironically, playing his second iconic teenage movie hero in a row. He pointed this out as a reminder to all the young kids at the National High School Musical Theatre Awards who went home defeated this year, like he did back in 2019.
Likes, 21, was a 17-year-old high school junior from Chandler, Arizona, when he competed at the weeklong Jimmy Awards in New York City. His performance of “Santa Fe” from Newsies didn’t earn him the grand prize, but he wowed casting directors in the audience so much that he landed an audition for William Miller in Almost Famous — and subsequently booked the role.
Likes purposely went to the afterparty of this year’s Jimmys this past June “to talk to the losers,” he explains. Of the 96 nominees, he points out, 94 of them lost. “I think there’s a lot of pressure every year on who’s gonna win. I wanted to remind the kids that it’s not about that. It’s really just about that amazing experience of the week. That is a very incomparable week of learning from Broadway professionals.” Likes specifically remembers speaking to nominee and finalist Corbin Ross. “I held on to this kid who looked a lot like me and had curly brown hair. I was like, ‘Dude, we’re the same.’ He didn’t win, but he was one of my favorites.”
Likes booked his second Broadway show – Back to the Future: The Musical, now playing at the Winter Garden Theatre – — and won the part of Marty McFly, a role made famous by Michael J. Fox in the 1985 film, in the final weeks of his run in Almost Famous. Likes had heard about Back to the Future coming to Broadway (it was playing in London) but didn’t think much of it because he was committed to Almost Famous. But the day after Almost Famous announced it was closing, casting directors asked him to read for the part. He was officially offered the role three or four days before his final performance as William Miller.
“At first it was a little bit terrifying,” Likes says of taking on Marty and not wanting to let the die-hard fans and the industry down. “I felt like what I came to do with Broadway I had accomplished. I had made my debut. I had been in a show that I was really proud of. I had a few health issues going on. How am I gonna be able to do this again? If I come back, I’ve already done a good job on the first one. What if the next one, I prove to them that I’m not everything they think I am? That’s that impostor syndrome feeling that everyone gets who is an actor.”
And that’s when Likes got to work on preparing for the challenge. “It is a huge responsibility, for sure,” he says. “But truthfully, it’s all I’ve ever known. Playing roles that come with expectations is nothing new to me. I had so much time to prepare for the show. Now that I’m here, it’s like getting on a bike again.”
As for his health issues, Likes doesn’t elaborate, only to say they were under control and “I’m sure I’ll dive into it in a coffee-table book one day.” He notes, though, that “watching Michael J. Fox’s documentary [Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, that examines his life with Parkinson’s disease] puts things into perspective for me about how he was struggling with a lot more serious health issues than I am now. He made it work and he managed to have a really incredible, inspiring career. He’s a big inspiration.”
Shortly after this interview, Likes met Fox at the gala performance of Back to the Future: The Musical. Taking to his Instagram to comment on the moment, Likes said Fox told him to, “Kick ass. If you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything,” after he asked the OG Marty McFly for advice before taking the stage.
The role of Marty McFly has quite a few similarities to fellow teen William Miller, but one major distinction. “The difference is I’m cool. Marty gets the girl,” Likes says. “I try to differentiate the performances quite a bit.” He also gets to rock out on stage at the end, much like he did in Almost Famous, and once again never leaves the stage throughout the entire show.
He notes that it’s a coincidence that both shows feature him half naked with four women in a bed. “That’s a very weird bingo card to mark off twice,” he jokes.
Back to the Future also lets him flex a lot of new muscles — from the technology know-how and choreography necessary for working with the DeLorean (“It’s basically a big magic trick for the audience,” he says) to the fast-paced comedic dialogue with Broadway veteran Roger Bart, who plays the famous Christopher Lloyd part of Doc Brown. Bart originated the role in London.
“There’s no one else who’s better at it than Roger Bart. He is the king of it. Now we kind of push each other’s buttons and see who can go faster and break character. We do try not to break, but I think he’s gotten me a couple of times, which always pisses me off,” Likes says jokingly.
The pair also is tasked with a few improvisational moments weaved into the book, written by Bob Gale, who also wrote the movie. “Sometimes it’s new. There are a few things that we’ve come up with that we know work, but we try to play within boundaries. It’s very much like a sandbox, playing with these moments any way you want, and we have a few of those moments throughout the show,” Likes adds.
What’s been so fascinating about the show, in Likes’s opinion, is that even though the story is 35 years old, it’s created a new generation of fans. “We’ve had these huge groups of high schoolers that are just screaming at the stage door,” Likes says. “It’s such a privilege to be a part of multiple different properties that come with such respect and fan bases already.”
And for Likes, that is pretty heavy.