Jacob Beresford booked the lead role in Royal Caribbean’s “Back to the Future: The Musical” thanks to his onstage talent – and a bit of bad weather.
The British actor was working in “We Will Rock You” on the cruise line’s Anthem of the Seas ship when a storm hit off the coast of Le Havre, France, in late 2024. “And that meant that we had to turn around and head back to Southampton a day early, which allowed me to go into London and go to an in-person audition for ‘Back to the Future’, and it was required that they at least see you in person once,” the 23-year-old told USA TODAY.
The show – a shortened version of the musical that ended its Broadway run in January – debuted on the company’s newest ship, Star of the Seas, over the summer. Beresford has been telling the story of Marty McFly’s time-travel adventures while doing some traveling of his own around the Caribbean.
The actor walked USA TODAY through what a day on the job is like, his favorite place on board and whether he can feel the ship move onstage. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Beresford: My mom is an advocate for theater. She absolutely adores it, so she threw me into it at an early age along with my sister. ... And I managed to go through primary school, go through high school, go through university, doing theater, and, incidentally, musical theater as well. ... So, the idea for doing musical theater on ships came about when a couple of my friends from my class in university ended up signing, doing – one of them was doing "Grease", and another one was doing, I can't remember what the musical was called, where they're all like in a bar and they're all having a great time, just a load of lads. But anyway, I saw them doing that and thought, “Well, this is a fantastic opportunity.” … Moving on to a ship and living on a ship rent-free and traveling the world doing something that I already absolutely adore seemed like a no-brainer.
