‘Drumline Live' takes viewers on educational, musical journey

A: I was band director at Southwest DeKalb High School. In 2002, I served as the executive band consultant for the movie "Drumline." That basically meant I was responsible for all of the band aspects in the movie. I was responsible for making Orlando Jones look like a band director, Nick Cannon look like a percussionist and Zoe Saldana look like a dancer. ...[The film] created a buzz. After the movie came out, I thought it would be great if we could put it on stage. ... From there I just really tried to develop the concept of "Drumline Live" and take it to the stage. We were first called "Halftime Live." We started very small in Atlanta. We did a three- to four-city tour in 2005. We were sitting in the office wondering how we were going to get to the next [level] or if we were going to have to shut down production. And we got a call from Columbia Artists Management, Inc., which happens to be the most successful theatrical production company in the country. They also produce "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," "Chicago," "Blue Man Group" and other shows. And these guys were actually calling me, a high school band director. [Laughs] They had the same idea we had, were surfing the Internet and found out about our show. They liked what we were doing, and from there a merger formed.

Q: The show itself is more than just marching bands on stage, right?

A: We tell people it's an historically black college and university band experience. And within that experience it's not just marching bands. You're going to get some jazz and gospel. You get drum line battles and dancing. I just didn't feel like we could do a show like this without paying homage to Africa, to the beginning. It's the drum that started all of this. The script tells a story. We start in Africa and go into the 1930s with jazz and big band. And we bring you all the way up into the '60s and '70s with Motown. ... Then we bring you up to the present day with hip-hop. We take a long musical journey and it's educational at the same time.

Q: What have you learned along the way about the world of theater?

A: One thing that it's taught me is that you can be here today and gone tomorrow. You can be extremely hot, you can be the best production, but if you go cold, you could shut down. ... So it keeps me working and keeps me hungry, because I want to do this for the rest of my life. ... Eventually we'd like to do Broadway. But the theatrical world is tough, which is part of the reason I haven't quit my job yet. [Laughs]

“Drumline Live”

Rescheduled for 8 p.m. Jan. 24. $19.15-$74.15. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.