Monday, August 18, 2008

A TRIBUTE TO BREAKIN': MY INTERVIEW WITH PHINEAS NEWBORN III

Kicking things off for my tribute to "Breakin'" this week, I have one of the most memorable characters in the whole movie, who played the pivotal role of hooking up the T.K.O crew. Many of you may remember his unshakable nickname that Kelly so fondly referred to him by..."Cupcake" but to me he's just Adam, the brotha in the purple tights who carelessly danced to the beat of his own drum.

The Adam character was also a bit revolutionary since this was one of the first times that I had ever seen an openly gay character in a movie where his sexuality was never mentioned, nor was it even an issue. This had to have been a pretty amazing feat to gay men during that time.

The man who so brilliantly brought this over the top character to life was none other than Mr. Phineas Newborn III. I recently caught up with Phineas and got a chance to hear about everything from his hillarious Breakin' audition to the multimillion selling manuscript he's soon going to be bringing to Broadway as a musical.


Click below to read the interview...

FADE IN:

SHEQUETA
Los Angeles or New York?

PHINEAS
I’m in New York…

SHEQUETA
Which do you like the most?

PHINEAS
Oh I like them both but I like New York more for what I’m doing right now.

SHEQUETA
Rock or Hip-Hop?

PHINEAS
Hip-Hop

SHEQUETA
Chess or Checkers?

PHINEAS
Checkers

SHEQUETA
Where are you from?

PHINEAS
I’m from Los Angeles.

SHEQUETA
You're a singer?

PHINEAS
Uh huh.

SHEQUETA
You have a beautiful voice...do you do voiceovers?

PHINEAS
How did you know?

SHEQUETA
I research people and I found you singing on something. I downloaded it. I was like oh wow. Do you do voiceovers?

PHINEAS
Yes, I’ve worked a lot on stage so I’ve been able to use my voice with that.

SHEQUETA
Tell me about your audition for Breakin'?

PHINEAS
Oh, well that was twenty five years ago. (Laughter). Um, It was interesting because you know I had, I had probably more acting experience than most of the dancers at that time. So I was kind of really ready to audition in terms of acting in the character. Just breakdown the description with a very over the top gay Jazz dancer - so I actually really went in full out all the way, you know - totally dressed up. And I remember actually being there with the director and reading off the director and improvising cause there really wasn’t a lot of lines to say. So I kinda just made up what I was gonna be doing and just went in and started teasing his hair and just you know totally playing that part way over the top and he loved it. And it was very interesting because it was up between me and another guy that was also a dancer. And obviously the dancing was really important but I think the acting for that part was probably a little bit more important due to just finding somebody who had a little bit of experience, not a lot but just enough to feel comfortable with dialogue. And you know a lot of even what happened in the movie came out of improvisation - came out of what we thought we would say or what we would want to say. So that was a lot of the part of the process in filming that.

SHEQUETA
How many years have you studied dance and what types of dance?

PHINEAS
Well at that time I had just gotten my first big dance job - I was doing the “Chorus Line” on Broadway. And I got that just before graduating high school but I’d only been dancing for about a year and a half before I got it. So probably by the time I did that movie was probably around two and a half years that I had been really dancing. And I had done mostly at that time…it was mostly Jazz. And I had a great mentor teacher who actually choreographed the sequel, “Billy Goodson”…the sequel “Electric Boogaloo.” And he was really my mentor in terms of my dance training up until that point.

SHEQUETA
What about now, what all have you studied over the years since then?

PHINEAS
A lotta ballet…a lotta ballet. I also taught hip-hop for a while. And a lotta musical theater and jazz and some modern. But after I did “Breakin’” the next thing that I did professionally was “Cats” in Los Angeles, for two years. And that required a lot of ballet training so I really kind of changed my focus to get into that show and really studied a lot of ballet.

SHEQUETA
What was the whole Breakin' experience like? Was it one big party or nothing but work, work, work?

PHINEAS
It was a little bit of both. I mean Jaime Rogers who’s the choreographer was very much the task master in terms of really wanting perfection and really having a large background when it comes to dancing because I was playing a jazz dancer. The time that we would spend in the studio actually creating the jazz routines and for the class and stuff like that were kind of really important to him because that was his background more than the hip-hop…than the breakdancing background. So we were in rehearsals a lot during that process and was really kind of high in intensity on the set when it comes to Jazz because that was so important to him. Because that was his voice, his personal voice. Even though he was able to access the voice of the breakdancers, it was kinda like we were his voice. So it was really important for him and I think that in terms of that it needed both just because we were having the ability to actually dance and do a movie like that at that time which was really kind of like not really done. So it was exciting to be working so that made it kind of a party but it was work. It was pretty…you know it was intense but you know it was fun.

SHEQUETA
Does the nickname "Cupcake" haunt you to this day?


PHINEAS
(laughter)
Yes it does. Unfortunately it does. I have a daughter, I have an eleven year old daughter, and I’ll tell you a story. I have an eleven year old daughter and one of her best friends in school – she just graduated from elementary school – saw the movie and she comes in school one day and she says “cupcakes, cupcakes” and I’m like oh no another generation let alone my daughters generation is calling me cupcakes. But no everyone all over the word there’s been people who’ve said that name to me. From Japanese to France to Germany.

SHEQUETA
Yeah you’re not gonna get over that one.

PHINEAS
Yeah I know, I know. But I mean obviously it was moreso in the very beginning when the movie first came out that’s pretty much all I was getting called.

SHEQUETA
Do you keep in touch with any of your Breakin' co-stars?

PHINEAS
Yeah you know what, as a matter of fact, I actually had lunch with Shabba Doo and I just talked to him cause he was in New York teaching a workshop at a dance school here. So we’ve been in touch. And I also saw Pete…Poppin Pete who was in one of the other dance crews. I saw him actually perform and he was amazing. He’s been able to keep and sustain his physical body even moreso now than I think when he was even younger. And he has a son who’s an identical replica in terms of style and in terms of ability as he had when he was his age. Otherwise I have not really kept in touch with anyone else. You know I kept in touch with the choreographer Jaime for a while he was living off in Paris, I was living there for a while. So we kept in touch. But in terms of the cast, Lucinda, I have not seen. I know that she’s living in Los Angeles and has kids and everything but I have not seen her. I would love to reconnect with her. Shrimp, Michael Chambers I haven’t run into him I just get word in terms of what he’s been doing and how he’s been doing. But um and Bruno and Ana I have gotten word on what they’ve been doing but I have not really kept in touch with them. And that’s about everybody. Oh yes, also you know who I also ran into about a year ago here in New York was the person who played the agent. Um, Christopher McDonald, I ran into him here. So it’s always nice to see those people from that time.

SHEQUETA
Did you get offered more roles after Breakin' or did you just want to focus on dancing?

PHINEAS
I kind of got um…you know it’s interesting after “Breakin” because I wanted to do more acting stuff but it was kind of like you know in Hollywood you’re only as you know - you’re only remembered for the last film that actually you do. And it became a little trying and a little difficult and I ended up having to try another source of income. I started doing a lot of theater which is really great – I love doing theater. And then I started off with teaching which kind of took me outside of the country and allowed me the ability to actually travel. So I went abroad and was in Europe for a long time and then Germany, and Japan. So I actually didn’t really pursue that as much as I had wanted to. But I did a few other things I did “Girls Just Wanna have Fun,” I did “Congo,” and I did some TV stuff. But I also started choreographing and so I started working with people like Gladys Knight and choreographing for Tyler Collins and then a lot of TV dance stuff. But um you know just trying to stay busy.

SHEQUETA
What is Broadway like?

PHINEAS
It’s great. It’s really, really great. I mean I was probably…when I was a kid my first dream was actually to be on Broadway. I loved it so much. Actually (helped) create a show on Broadway when I did “Aida” here, which is why I moved to New York (and) was I think one of the greatest experiences of my life just because I had the ability to actually conceive a role in the show and watch it kind of grow from the very beginning until it was on Broadway which was really exciting. And it’s fun, I mean you have to do many shows a week, it’s a very exhausting tiring schedule but there’s nothing like performing in front of a different audience every night cause the response is always different and the energy that you’re receiving is always different. So it’s just very rewarding, it’s very different than working in film, in video, or in you know TV where you don’t have the immediate response of your audience right away.

SHEQUETA
Okay in researching you I found information on the late great jazz pianist Phineas Newborn Jr., any relation?

PHINEAS
Yes that’s my father.

SHEQUETA
Tell me about him? What was his influence on you?

PHINEAS
Well he was genius you know. He was one of the pioneers of Jazz in this country. As a matter of fact, in the Smithsonian, our family name Newborn is listed as being the first family of jazz in Memphis. And my father is Phineas Newborn Jr., my grandfather (Phineas Newborn) Senior so there’s three generations of us. And he and his father both were musicians and um it was just really, really amazing. I mean I think one of the reasons why I also felt very confident in having a career in this industry was because I already knew my father could do it. So it was never...there were never any limitations placed on me in terms of my own mind as to being able to survive and make It in this business because my father already has. So I thought okay he did it so I could do it. He was amazing though I don’t know if you’ve had the chance to go on Youtube and actually watch him play. But if you go on YouTube and just put in his name Phineas Newborn Jr. you will see he had the fastest hands in the business. That was one of the things he was really known for. And he was really diligent in terms of his craft. He would rehearse, he would practice about eight hours a day and play everything from classical music to jazz. He was just really, really gifted and very, very talented. It was just amazing to see you know. And I didn’t really…I didn’t grow up with him a lot but I mean the influence that I did have when he was around was just really kind of exceptional.

SHEQUETA
Tell me about the “Alchemist” musical you co-wrote? I'm very curious as to how you write a musical?

PHINEAS
Well it’s actually very interesting because when I first was doing Aida here in New York, I had been given the book as a gift from a friend of mine. And I started reading the book and I immediately started hearing music. I had written some music in the past but never really a musical, even though my experience in musical theater has been from a very young age. So when I started hearing this music it kinda was coming to me as totally divine inspiration and it just kinda flowed through me. I started recording some of my ideas. And two of the people in the orchestra of Aida I shared my ideas with and they said you really have something there, we should sit down and work together on this. And then I proceeded to correspond with the author Paulo Coelho in Brazil. And just by chance I asked for the rights just at a time where they were becoming available. He liked my music and things that I had done so he granted me the rights to the “Alchemist” which is this very famous book. Thirty million copies sold worldwide in every language, practically under the sun and loved in every country and a best seller in every country. So I was really kind of pushed into this situation where I had this great classic manuscript at my disposal to create a musical. I mean I first got the rights in 2002 and we’re now looking finally at a Broadway opening in 2011. And there’s a lot of change in terms of my involvement. Originally I got the rights to do my music but because of the fact that I don’t have a name on Broadway as a music writer, (it) deterred us from getting financial backing and investors involved. They want to have more of a name recognition in terms of people who already have a reputation. So where we are now is that we just got George C. Wolfe who’s a very famous director and playwright on Broadway. So he’s directing it and playwriting it. We’ve been talking to some very high powered musicians like Sting (and) Annie Lennox (will) possibly be involved in writing the music.

PHINEAS
So I mean my music wont be used in probably the Broadway production or it could be, you never know. But it’s also the movie version that Laurence Fishburne is directing and there’s a possibility that my music can be placed in the film as well. So (I) definitely have arrived somewhere, I’m just not exactly sure where. But it was really a great process, I mean you know if you write…you know that when it comes to you and you just sit down and let it flow. I mean for me it was a situation where I was doing the show and I would get outta the theater at ten thirty and I would come home at like eleven thirty and would start writing at around twelve in the morning and until about six in the morning I would keep writing. I found it was always better for me to do it when I was tired because I didn’t stand in the way of my artistic expression. And then it would just basically flow out. A lot of what I’ve wrote, if you’ve heard some of the stuff online, were the first melodies that came to me, even with the lyrics. So it’s really something divinely you know kind of channel(ed) through me. I’ve really only allowed myself to be the vessel and I just opened myself up to receiving the information.

SHEQUETA
I can’t see them not using that cause that sounds exactly like it. I mean I read about the book and the subject and I listened to the music and was like okay this matches it. So they should use some of your music.

PHINEAS
I think so too but you know at this point it really is just much bigger than just me. I just want it to be a success and I want people to be exposed to that story and that way of thinking - in a new way and I just want to be a part of it so you know. That’s really the most important thing to me.

SHEQUETA
What are you working on now? Are you in any plays/musicals right now?

PHINEAS
Mostly my attention is focused on the alchemist because we’re at the point where we’re really developing it. We just got George C. Wolfe’s treatment of how he wants to adapt it to the stage which was very interesting. Then we’re in discussions with composers to actually write the music. But in terms of our timeline we’re a couple of years away from actually a Broadway production. And next year…in less than a year we have to do a reading in terms of our timeline which is basically you know putting together what has been written on paper in front of backers so that we can you know get investment capital for the musical. So we’re really at this point in development stages as opposed to being further along. So we’re really just at the beginning.

SHEQUETA
Do you want to say anything to your many fans out there?

PHINEAS
Well just you know…I guess I will coin a phrase from the “Alchemist” and that says follow your dreams…follow your heart…do whatever you want to do but do it at 100 percent. Really give everything you’ve got to your art if it’s the arts. If it’s something else…if it’s law, if it’s computers, whatever you’re doing just really, really put every part of your spirit into what (it) is that you’re doing and just stay positive you know. Know that anything is possible. Don’t have any limits, don’t create any limits. Forget everything you’ve been taught and teach yourself.

THE END

To find out more about Phineas' project click here to go to his website.