Q&A: Andre 3000 Benjamin

We caught up with Andre 3000 Benjamin recently to talk the Alliance Theatre's "Class of 3000 Live." The children's play is based on "Class of 3000" cartoon that depicts a music teacher and former star named Sunny Bridges. Benjamin, who created the Cartoon Network animated series along with Tommy Lynch, provides the voice of the cartoon Sunny, who also exhibits the hip-hop star's signature style. Onstage at the Alliance, however, Sunny will be played by actor Sinatra Onyewuchi. The production makes its stage debut on March 6.

What's it like choosing a person to play a character that you voice on TV? To be honest, the Alliance Theatre, they had a casting call. I was just a small part of it. Of course, we put our two cents in. I think we made the decision together, so it didn't all fall in my lap, because I've never directed or produced a stage play before.

How has your experience been working in live theater? Well, see, this is all fun to me right now, because I haven't done like the dirty work…I've never done stage plays seriously. In school, I did stage plays. It wasn't on a professional level just yet. So really, doing the producer work for "Class of 3000" has been a lot of fun, because basically what you're doing is taking an animated project and bringing it to stage, which is fun.

Was that something you had ever imagined when you were working on the project in the beginning—that it would go from cartoon to theater? No. But in the very beginnings of "Class of 3000," I'd planned to release singles from the soundtrack and I wanted to do videos that would come on regular video stations. And I wanted to cast characters that looked like the cartoons. But that, that never happened. So when the Alliance contacted us and said, "Hey, we want to do 'Class of 3000,'" I thought it was a great way to do it again.

We know the character on the show is not based completely on you, other than how he looks and talks, of course, but is teaching music something you ever considered? Not at all. To be honest, there is a lot of me personally in that character. I never thought about being a music teacher, but when I was creating the characters, I'm thinking "what great classes do I remember when I was younger and what teachers do I remember?" I remember my drama teacher and I remember my art teachers. So I knew I never really wanted to be a really old rapper onstage…so I said, maybe I could end up being a teacher. But I never thought about being a music teacher. I think an art teacher. I'd rather be an art teacher.

Tell us, when you were little, what cartoons did you love? Peanuts, all the Looney Tunes, all of the Tom and Jerrys, Bugs Bunny, the Smurfs, the Littles, the Snorks, Thundercats, even Jem.

Now, what about as an adult, do you still watch cartoons? Oh yeah, love cartoons. Cartoon Network is one of my favorite stations.

And what shows in particular do you really, really like? I have guilty pleasures. I love "Family Guy" and "American Dad." Those are my favorites. I could sit and watch episode after episode of those cartoons.

So what are you hoping, when kids come to see the play, that they'll take away from it? I just hope they have a really great time and I hope they remember it. I hope they go home singing the songs. When I started doing it, I was like, OK, I want to make these songs, you know, when you get older, you may be doing something in the kitchen and find yourself humming a tune. Like when I was younger, the whole 1-2-3-4-5-6-8-9-10-11-12 [from "Sesame Street"]. They were just like cool tunes and it was really the melody that you remember. I just hope people when they grow up, they may sing "Oh Peanut" from the show.
So, really that's the goal. It was really, really, really for the kids, because when I started it, it was supposed to be an Adult Swim cartoon, but when we got into it and when we got into the characters, it turned into a more prime-time, for-the-kids kind of thing.
I think, right now, kids are growing up really, really, really, really fast, so I just wanted something kiddie. I think you don't get enough time to stay a kid anymore, it's all about growing up fast these days. I'm just trying to preserve some kiddage.