Fresh Loaf

1. Atlanta THUNDERSNOW!!!! (Yes, that was last week. Snow. Inches of it. Followed by 80-degree bliss. Georgia is rad.)

2. Man found dead in Capitol office building (State employee apparently took his own life.)

3. Gena Evans: ‘Best day’ at GDOT was day I was fired (What the former Department of Transportation commissioner meant to say was, “Take this job and shove it!”)

4. Speakeasy with Outkast’s Andre Benjamin (Rapper’s “Class of 3000″ cartoon transitions from TV to the stage.)

5. Animated superheroes burst from shadows of live-action films (In other animation news, comic-book protagonists transition from ink to celluloid.)

(Image from Regator’s “thundersnow” t-shirt page on Zazzle)

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Outkast’s André Benjamin remains the headmaster of “Class of 3000,” even though Cartoon Network ceased production of the animated school daze comedy after 26 episodes. “Class of 3000” is transferring to a new medium, however, as the Alliance Children’s Theatre presents the world premiere stage adaptation beginning Fri., March 6. Benjamin, the show’s creator, executive producer and vocal star as the inspirational Willy Wonka-esque music teacher Sunny Bridges, discusses the TV series’ origins and its transition to the stage.

Did you ever have an inspirational teacher like Sunny?
I’ve had a few in my lifetime. What inspired the character (played by Atlanta’s Sinatra Onyewuchi at the Alliance) was the fact that I wouldn’t want to be Andre 3000 forever. I’d eventually want to leave the stage. I never thought about being a music teacher, though. I wanted to be an art teacher, because I also draw and paint, and I remember art teachers who were like Sunny. My guitar teacher right now, Zaza, he’s a teacher like that, too. He’s a fun time, and I can enjoy that, even though I’m 33 years old.

How did you originate “Class of 3000?“
I was approached by Cartoon Network first. Once they gave me an offer, they wanted to see what show I wanted to create. Originally it was going to be an Adult Swim show, but the more I got into it, I started shaping it into a mainstream, prime-time kind of thing.

You provided a new song for every episode, five of which appear in the stage play. Was it different writing songs for a young audience, compared to your usual audience?
I wasn’t trying to water down the music aspect of the show just because it was for kids. You watch old “Peanuts” or “Fat Albert” shows, they weren’t necessarily kids’ songs. On “Peanuts,” you’re listening to jazz by Vince Guaraldi. I want to make sure that kids had something to listen to that wasn’t teeny bopper songs — although we would do those, too, if they fit into the story. I wanted to give them a little jazz, ragtime, blues, funk music, with the hope that if kids heard those kinds of music later, they’d say, “Hey, I remember this kind of song!” I thought that was fitting, since I play a music teacher. I also wanted to show how different kinds of songs, like classical music, could be reinterpreted in new ways, which is what I like to do with my other kinds of music.

(more…)

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Our boys from Outkast are no stranger to side projects. Nearly a year after Big Boi tore up the Fox with his collaboration on the hip-hop ballet big, his partner in crime André 3000 drops in a few blocks up Peachtree at the Alliance with the world premiere of Class of 3000 LIVE.

The production, as the title states, is a live version of the Emmy award-winning animated series “Class of 3000,” which Benjamin created for Cartoon Network with Tommy Lynch. The live show will also include original music by Benjamin.

In “Class,” international music superstar Sunny Bridges pulls a Dave Chappelle and up and ditches his hot-shot celebrity lifestyle. Instead of Africa, Sunny ends up in Atlanta teaching at the Westley School for the Performing Arts to try rediscovering life before all the hype. The story follows Sunny and his gang of students as they help the A-lister get his feet back on the ground, while he helps the kids tap into their talents.

If big is any measure of the energy and creativity we can expect from Class of 3000 LIVE, it should be another theater-crashing blow-out. No pressure, though.

The show runs March 7-29.

(Photo courtesy www.tomlynchco.com)

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