Ever wondered what a cruise ship performer does every day?

• Actor Jacob Beresford landed the lead role in Royal Caribbean's "Back to the Future: The Musical" after a storm allowed him to attend an in-person audition.
• Beresford's daily routine involves physical and vocal warm-ups, getting sunlight, and adhering to the ship's strict meal schedules.

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.

Question: How did you get into this work?

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.

I wanted to ask if you don't mind walking us through what a typical day, if there is such a thing, is like for you on board while you're working?

To cover the basics, we do five shows of “Back to the Future” per week, and we have a seven-day itinerary, so it works out perfectly that we can work weekly. So, five days of “Back to the Future,” but that also can include crew duties such as muster [or] emergency drills, but they're quite scarce, so a day-to-day life may or may not include ship duties.

But normally, depending on the port, depending on whether or not you decide to get off, the day-to-day life tends to consist of just routine things: just getting to the gym; making sure my voice is nice and healthy; going for a run; doing anything that I can to stay physically fit. And mainly, which is something that you take for granted when working on a ship, is making sure that you're actually getting sunlight, because you can be on the inside of the ship for so long, and all of a sudden, you're depressed. And then you realize, “Oh, it's because I've not actually seen sunlight in 48 hours.” So, one thing is actually getting outside and just making sure you're in the sun. And lucky for us, we're in the Caribbean, so the sun doesn't hold back. But it's a standard routine, similar to people who are on land.

But also, one thing to note is that you don't make your own food. You can't bring on your own food, apart from the odd snacks and things like that, so you have to abide by the ship's eating schedule, the food schedule. So you've got to make sure your routines are actually kind of strict.

What time do you start getting ready, and then what time do you end on a show day?

When we have a two-show day, it's mostly similar to on land. So it'll be roughly 2, 2:30 p.m. for our show, which means we'll be in the theater an hour and 45 (minutes) before that time of the show. So, we'll be doing the physical warm-up, vocal warm-up and presets. And that's the same with any shows that will be in the evening.

If it's an 8:30 show, which they often are in the evening, then we have to be in the theater at 6:45 for our warm-ups. But this also includes, we'll have about an hour's gap between our warm-ups and actually starting the show, so the opening curtain. And during this time, the whole cast will be doing presets, some more than others, because of just the nature of the show. And one thing which is quite interesting about this show, which I've not experienced before, is the automated spotlights. … With Royal we have BlackTrax, which are basically stringers that run through the costume with little beacons so that the lights, the spotlights, can have something to track. And we have to thread these through all of our costumes and obviously remove them if the costumes need washing. So for me, that normally takes another hour to do.

I would say the whole process of getting ready for the show [can] be roughly about two-and-a-half hours because I like to get in before the warm-ups to do my own vocal warm-ups, to make sure that I'm ready for the show, and then, of course, setting up the costumes and the props.

One thing about Marty is that he has bottomless pockets for how many pictures, driving licenses, and clock tower pamphlets there are in my pockets. So, that also needs, like, an extra 10 minutes to get ready. But yeah, so normally, two-and-a-half hours or so before the show starts. And then on a two-show day, we'll have roughly, I want to say, three hours before our half-hour call for the next show. For that second show, if it is a two-show day, we won't have to repeat any of the warm-ups because we'll already be warm. And then once the show is finished, it just comes down to making sure the costumes are all in the costume room to be washed and cleaned and whatnot, and then we head home, which is about a 10-second walk to our cabins, which is probably one of the best things about working on a ship.

You mentioned some of the differences in living on board, but from the performance side, is there anything that's really struck you?

Well, one thing that I would say that can pose a certain challenge is that we performers are used to an audience who has paid for a ticket to come and see the show that we're putting on, but on a ship, people have paid to come on the ship. They've not paid to see the show. … Of course, there are some people who you know are avid fans of, let's say, “Back to the Future,” and so they come on the ship to watch the show because it's exciting to see a new version. But more often than not, they’re guests who come on the ship and then realize there's a show they can come watch, or it's just not on the priority list. So, when they come to the show, often, some guests might not have a theater etiquette, which is absolutely fine because they're on a ship – it's their holiday. But it can actually be kind of tricky, because unlike a theater that you would expect all phones to be off, all conversations to be hushed, there are people having, like, full conversations whilst you’re in a moving scene, or you'll have people's alarms going off. And that can be really tricky, because it's just not something that you would be used to. … And obviously, it's not all the time, it's no problem, but it can definitely be a challenge.

And also when it comes to especially approaching the end of the show – or sometimes throughout the middle – we don't have an intermission, so these audience members who haven't necessarily come to the ship to see the show, are sitting down for around an hour-and-a-half to two hours, and some people just are not prepared for that. So you'll have sometimes masses of people just walking out mid-show, and [it’s] kind of disheartening, because a lot of us are, like, drenched in sweat, giving heart and soul, and you can just see the aisles full of people just kind of moping away. And you're just thinking, “Oh, what am I doing wrong here?” But obviously, people want to enjoy the ship, and they've had enough, and that's fine. But I know, especially for “Back to the Future,” there's “The Power of Love,” [that] opens up at the end. You've reached the end of the show, and that's supposed to be such a rock and roll song, and when I see people walking out, I'm just gripping my mic so hard trying to keep my mojo alive, if that's any way of putting it.

Now, I thought with the ship being so big, we wouldn't feel [the rocking] as much, but actually, with some of the storms and hurricanes that have been blowing our way, we've been all over the shop. And considering Marty loves to be on his skateboard all the time, sometimes I'm going uphill, and then I can feel myself trailing backwards. And for moments like that, or moments where we are just supposed to be still and enjoying quite an emotional moment, and then the ship rocks, and you're just trying to catch yourself, that can actually fracture your focus quite a bit. And of course, that's just the gig. That's no one's fault, but it can definitely be a challenge.

You've spent a lot of time on the ship now. Do you have a favorite place to hang out on board when you have free time?

This is exclusive for crew: We have a helipad which is just outside of our crew bar, and that is just a perfect place to get some peace and quiet. ... But it's lovely as well, because it's also a place where we don't have to dress in guest attire and look smart, and we can just relax and be comfy just in our own little space. And it's always sunny out there, so it's grand.

I was curious: On this ship or on previous ones, do you have a favorite place you've been as part of the job?

Absolutely. There have been so many places, especially on my last ship. Since it was smaller, we got to go to so many more locations.

Back on Anthem, we went around Europe, then traveled for a one-month crossing around Africa, and then went back up and stopped in our new homeport in Asia. And the itinerary that we were on for most of the time surrounded Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore – I think those are the main three. Then, of course, we did other spurts of itineraries in other places, but Singapore was our homeport, so we went back to Singapore every week, and that's where we could get supplies and things like that. Absolutely stunning, just one of the most beautiful places. They really incorporated over there, which is so peaceful and just refreshing, the sort of ecosystems that they have, just like trailing on all the buildings and you're in the middle of a city, but you feel like you're breathing the fresh air of the Amazon. I mean, it's genuinely gorgeous. So I would say Singapore is probably the best place that I've ever been, and I had the opportunity to do that. And they also have M&S [retailer]. … For some reason, they have Marks & Spencers everywhere. I didn't know they existed anywhere else, but Singapore absolutely loves Marks & Spencer, which I thought was solely British. So, it was almost like a piece of home in this new place.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at [email protected].