Great Scott! It’s Back to the Future Day in Madison, for real this time.
A pre-show screen recalls the internet hoax from the 2010s — a Photoshopped still from the 1985 sci-fi movie starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, replacing Oct. 21, 2015 as the day Fox’s character arrives in the more modern world with the current day. This week, “Back to the Future: The Musical” really flies into town for eight shows in Overture Hall.
This Equity tour, running since 2024, is a good enough time, though impressive pyrotechnics can’t eclipse a painfully cheesy score as Marty McFly works to save his family from his own interference.
With a story by film co-author Bob Gale, “Back to the Future” wraps boomer nostalgia inside Gen X nostalgia, with winking updates for a 2020s audience. Gale’s script isn’t terribly clever but, in the spirit of Hollywood stories as a surer bet on Broadway, it is familiar.
From left, Zan Berube (Lorraine Baines on an earlier version of this tour), Mike Bindeman (George) and Lucas Hallauer (Marty) perform in “Back to the Future: The Musical.”
Aspiring musician Marty (Lucas Hallauer, energetic and up for anything) seems to live inside an MTV video, surrounded by an ensemble dressed in bright pink, neon green and the kind of funky prints I had on my grade school Trapper Keeper.
In the pantheon of musical theater cool guys, Marty’s going for a Ren McCormack (“Footloose”), maybe a little Roger from “Rent.” He lands, alas, closer to SpongeBob. He’s so earnest. But hey, we love a short king with a guitar!
Marty’s best buddy, wild-haired mad scientist Doc Brown (David Josefsberg, like Mel Brooks’ Dr. Frankenstein turned up to 11), has built a time machine out of a DeLorean. Doc pilfers plutonium from a power plant, and this time instead of being hunted by Libyans, the radiation gets him — one of several shifts away from the movie’s more problematic elements.
David Josefsberg, left, plays Doc Brown and Lucas Hallauer plays Marty McFly on the “Back to the Future: The Musical” Broadway tour, in Madison through March 15.
Another example: When Marty lands in 1955, it’s no longer the film’s rose-colored dream of tidy diners and manicured lawns. “Our super leaded gasoline/ will keep our atmosphere so fresh and clean,” the ensemble sings, now looking like extras in “Bye Bye Birdie.” “These filtered cigarettes are new/ and even doctors say they’re good for you.”
“It just feels right when/ all these white men … get to have their cake, and eat it too.” (Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard wrote the score.)
David Josefsberg plays Doc Brown on the “Back to the Future” musical tour.
John Rando’s direction has a barely controlled-chaos energy, particularly during a schoolwide fight scene at the end of Act I when everything seems to be unraveling for Marty.
Marty’s teenage mother (Kathryn Adeline) has taken a shine to him instead of his stiff, awkward father (Mike Bindeman, dancing like his arms don’t bend). Cartoonish villain Biff (Nathaniel Hackmann) terrorizes everyone, like a 1950s Gaston.
Lucas Hallauer plays Marty, center, in “Back to the Future: The Musical.”
The music in “Back to the Future” ranges from synth-heavy ’80s pop to a ’50s girl group number (“Something About That Boy”) to what sounds like a full orchestral film score. Aside from a show-stopping song, “Gotta Start Somewhere,” from Cartreze Tucker in a minor role as future mayor Goldie Wilson, “Back to the Future” has two major things going for it.
When the script steps to one side to poke fun at itself, it’s genuinely funny. Why are there suddenly poofy-haired, silver-clad girls dancing alongside Doc? He’s not sure! “They just show up when I start singing.”
And the illusions, designed by Chris Fisher, are really something. Imagine the old school “Star Wars” ride, Star Tours at Disney World (RIP), with a DeLorean. This is real theater magic. Don’t think too hard about how it all works — as Tom Wilson, the original Biff Tannen, riffs in a 2005 comedy special, “Do hoverboards really fly?” is one of the nonstop questions he gets, along with “What’s Michael J. Fox like?” (“He’s nice.”)
“Back to the Future: The Musical” turns a good idea into a middling musical. The script is hokey, and the flat simplicity in the lyrics lands like the creators workshopped the wit out of them. That’s the way of the future, I guess. It doesn’t always look like we want it to.
Lindsay Christians is the food and culture editor at the Cap Times. She earned a master’s degree in theater research from UW-Madison and has been a member of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association since 2007.
Email story ideas and tips to Lindsay at [email protected].
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