Hit Rewind

Berklee Theater Arts Collaborative and the Staged Reading Ensemble present Hit Rewind, a concert reading of a time-travel musical with book, music, and lyrics by Michael Wartofsky, professor of songwriting, and guest artist David Davila.  

Based on the YA novel Spin Me Right Round by David Valdes, associate professor of theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Hit Rewind tells the story of Joey Rivera, an overconfident, gay, Latiné fashionista campaigning for prom king at a Christian boarding school. A knock on the head spins Rivera from 2016 to 1989, into a world where his parents are his classmates, no one’s heard of Instagram, and his dad is the resident homophobic bully. Soon, Rivera realizes that he has the chance to prevent the untimely and mysterious death of a trans girl, a death that’s haunted his parents and the entire town for decades. 

Will he be able to save this teen from her prior fate? Can he adapt to a world that doesn’t spin around him alone? Is it cheating on your boyfriend if you kiss someone in a different century? Packed with laughs, high-stakes action, and endless 1980s references, this musical comedy ultimately celebrates the spin of the moral universe towards justice… and glitter.

Hit Rewind is directed by Associate Professor Hayley Thompson-King, with music direction and accompaniment by Esther García Moreno.