Taylor Trensch and Nkeke Obi-Melekwe Unite For Time Travel In SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED

Say you built a time machine and traveled back into the past. What would you change? How much would you risk? Would you even try to save someone you lost? 

Big questions give rise to an unlikely friendship in new indie-rock musical Safety Not Guaranteed, which follows a cynical journalist who grows fascinated by an eccentric scientist claiming to possess a time machine.

For Broadway veterans Nkeke Obi-Melekwe and Taylor Trensch, the show’s big philosophical questions ultimately yield to a sweet. intimate tale of two lost souls forming a surprising connection. 

“It goes deeper than just physically going back in time,” said Obi-Melekwe, best known for leading Tina: The Tina Turner Musical on Broadway and in the West End. “It’s those feelings around what you’d want to change. That’s how they connect.”

“The overarching idea of the show is what a pitfall nostalgia can become,” echoed Trensch (Dear Evan Hansen, Camelot). “Constantly wishing you could go back and do something a different way, instead of just appreciating the moment we’re given.”

Obi-Melekwe and Trensch sat down with Theatrely in the offices of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where Safety Not Guaranteed began previews September 18 at BAM Harvey as part of Next Wave 2024 & Emerging Visions.

Based on the 2012 indie hit film of the same name, Safety Not Guaranteed features original songs by Ryan Miller, lead singer of the popular alternative rock band Guster. Broadway mainstay Nick Blaemire (Glory Days, Space Dogs), who wrote the book, first pitched the adaptation to Miller; Lee Sunday Evans, best known for Clare Barron’s darkly comic Dance Nation, directs. 

As in the film, Darius (Obi-Melekwe) is a budding journalist at Seattle Magazine intrigued by a bizarre classified ad placed by Kenneth (Trensch).

“Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me,” the ad reads. “This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.” 

“When Darius meets him and realizes Kenneth is a firm believer in this, then she just wants to understand him,” said Obi-Melekwe. 

A natural loner who is passionate about theoretical physics and time travel (“every musical theater lover’s dream,” Trensch deadpans), Kenneth is initially skeptical of Darius. His adult life has been “a series of profound disappointments,” a feeling which Darius can relate to. As events around Kenneth’s invention begin to escalate, the two find an unexpected kinship. 

After auditioning separately for the roles, Obi-Melekwe and Trensch were put together for a chemistry read.

“I remember being like, “I don’t know, I don’t know if we were rizzing”,” recalled Obi-Melekwe.

“Meanwhile I was like, “Wow, our chemistry is stunning,” Trensch said.

For fans of the original film, a Sundance breakout that helped propel star Aubrey Plaza and director Colin Trevorrow to stardom, a few surprises may be in store. While Darius and Kenneth are love interests on screen, here their bond is strictly one of friendship. Film Darius is dragged along on the assignment by her obnoxious and self-involved editor Jeff (Jake Johnson on film, and now The Band’s Visit’s Pomme Koch); but on stage, Daris is the instigator of the article. 

“The entire team wanted to make sure that the story was coming from her perspective,” said Obi-Melekwe. The story now leans into Darius stirring up trouble as an “agent of chaos,” in the actress’s words.  

“She’s a little rabble rouser,” she laughed. “Which is her way of coping with the cards she’s been dealt.”

Obi-Melekwe, Trensch and Koch, joined by Ashley Pérez Flanagan (Oratorio for Living Things), John-Michael Lyles (A Strange Loop) and Rohan Kymal, will perform a score by Miller that melds his indie-rock background with a theatrical narrative.

Blaemire initially approached Miller about lending existing Guster tracks to the musical, but the singer-songwriter instead proposed writing a wholly original score. 

“Ryan has managed to hold onto his unique voice as a musician while also moving the plot forward in a traditional theater sense,” said Trensch. (The show does also feature three existing Guster songs, alongside 14 original numbers.)

Miller dived head first into the assignment, Obi-Melekwe said, at one point throwing out her former 11 o’clock number when the two agreed it wasn’t quite working. A new song arrived as rehearsals began, first delivered by voice memo texted to Obi-Melekwe.

“It told me so much more about the character than I’d known before,” she said. “I’m really honored that he wrote that song with me in mind — that’s very special to me.”

If its themes sound at all at all heavy, the two stars are quick to stress that Safety is, for all its big questions, a supremely silly show. Sunday Evans has crafted an “imaginative, exceptionally goofy world” in the BAM Harvey space, said Trensch.

“Lots of shits and giggles,” added Obi-Melekwe.

At the heart of all the silliness, though, is an improbable bond between two lost, lonely souls who discover a deep and shared need for connection.

“So if you’re lonely,” added Trensch, “Come on down!”

For tickets and more information, visit here. 

Theatrely’s 2024 Fall Preview is sponsored by The Broadway Cruise 3, setting sail to Cozumel, Mexico this March. To learn more, visit here.