{"id":2323793,"date":"2026-03-11T21:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T21:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2323793"},"modified":"2026-03-11T21:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T21:48:17","slug":"back-to-the-future-musical-tour-is-all-spark-no-substance-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/back-to-the-future-musical-tour-is-all-spark-no-substance-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Back to the Future\u2019 musical tour is all spark, no substance | Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Great Scott! It\u2019s Back to the Future Day in Madison, for real this time.<\/p>\n

A pre-show screen recalls the internet\u00a0hoax<\/a> from the 2010s \u2014 a Photoshopped still from the 1985 sci-fi movie starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, replacing Oct. 21, 2015 as the day Fox\u2019s character arrives in the more modern world with the current day. This week, \u201cBack to the Future: The Musical\u201d really flies into town for eight shows in Overture Hall.<\/p>\n

This Equity tour, running since 2024, is a good enough time, though impressive pyrotechnics can\u2019t eclipse a painfully cheesy score as Marty McFly works to save his family from his own interference.<\/p>\n

With a story by film co-author Bob Gale, \u201cBack to the Future\u201d wraps boomer nostalgia inside Gen X nostalgia, with winking updates for a 2020s audience. Gale\u2019s script isn\u2019t terribly clever but, in the spirit of Hollywood stories as a surer bet on Broadway, it is familiar.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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From left,\u00a0Zan 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.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

In the pantheon of musical theater cool guys, Marty\u2019s going for a Ren McCormack (\u201cFootloose\u201d), maybe a little Roger from \u201cRent.\u201d He lands, alas, closer to SpongeBob. He\u2019s so earnest. But hey, we love a short king with a guitar!<\/p>\n

Marty\u2019s best buddy, wild-haired mad scientist Doc Brown (David Josefsberg, like Mel Brooks\u2019 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 \u2014 one of several shifts away from the movie\u2019s more problematic elements.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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Another example: When Marty lands in 1955, it\u2019s no longer the film\u2019s rose-colored dream of tidy diners and manicured lawns. \u201cOur super leaded gasoline\/ will keep our atmosphere so fresh and clean,\u201d the ensemble sings, now looking like extras in \u201cBye Bye Birdie.\u201d \u201cThese filtered cigarettes are new\/ and even doctors say they\u2019re good for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just feels right when\/ all these white men \u2026 get to have their cake, and eat it too.\u201d (Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard wrote the score.)<\/p>\n

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David Josefsberg plays Doc Brown on the “Back to the Future” musical tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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John Rando\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Marty\u2019s teenage mother (Kathryn Adeline) has taken a shine to him instead of his stiff, awkward father (Mike Bindeman, dancing like his arms don\u2019t bend). Cartoonish villain Biff (Nathaniel Hackmann) terrorizes everyone, like a 1950s Gaston.<\/p>\n

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Lucas Hallauer plays Marty, center, in “Back to the Future: The Musical.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The music in \u201cBack to the Future\u201d ranges from synth-heavy \u201980s pop to a \u201950s girl group number (\u201cSomething About That Boy\u201d) to what sounds like a full orchestral film score. Aside from a show-stopping song, \u201cGotta Start Somewhere,\u201d from Cartreze Tucker in a minor role as future mayor Goldie Wilson, \u201cBack to the Future\u201d has two major things going for it.<\/p>\n

When the script steps to one side to poke fun at itself, it\u2019s genuinely funny. Why are there suddenly poofy-haired, silver-clad girls dancing alongside Doc? He\u2019s not sure! \u201cThey just show up when I start singing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the illusions, designed by Chris Fisher, are really something. Imagine the old school \u201cStar Wars\u201d ride, Star Tours at Disney World (RIP), with a DeLorean. This is real theater magic. Don\u2019t think too hard about how it all works \u2014 as Tom Wilson, the original Biff Tannen, riffs in a 2005\u00a0comedy special<\/a>, \u201cDo hoverboards really fly?\u201d is one of the nonstop questions he gets, along with \u201cWhat\u2019s Michael J. Fox like?\u201d (\u201cHe\u2019s nice.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\u201cBack to the Future: The Musical\u201d 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\u2019s the way of the future, I guess. It doesn\u2019t always look like we want it to.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Lindsay Christians<\/a>\u00a0is 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.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Email story ideas and tips to Lindsay at\u00a0lchristians@captimes.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Please consider supporting Lindsay\u2019s work by becoming a\u00a0Cap Times member<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0sponsor<\/a>. Sustaining local journalism in Madison depends on readers like you.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source captimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Great Scott! It\u2019s Back to the Future Day in Madison, for real this time. A pre-show screen recalls the internet\u00a0hoax from the 2010s \u2014 a Photoshopped still from the 1985 sci-fi movie starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, replacing Oct. 21, 2015 as the day Fox\u2019s character arrives in the more modern world with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2323794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2323793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/\u2018Back-to-the-Future-musical-tour-is-all-spark-no.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2323795,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323793\/revisions\/2323795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2323794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2323793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2323793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}