San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
A music-filled break in Fallbrook
Broadway veteran Josh Breckenridge writes album while stuck at home
Back in 2003, San Diego theater star Josh Breckenridge-graduated from Fallbrook High School and headed east for college and then New York City, where he lived and worked steadily for more than a decade until the lights went out on Broadway last March.
Since May, Breckenridge has been back in Fallbrook, living in a motor home in his mom’s driveway, and working on a new project that has been a lifetime dream. In June, he’ll release his first album under his music persona “J. Breckenridge.” He wrote and sang all of the songs on the 12-track album, a mix of pop, R&B, jazz and doo-wop. The second single, “Y.O.U.” — about the benefits of therapy for maintaining good mental health — was released Tuesday.
Breckenridge said that while he has loved his musical theater career and the work he’s done in film and on television — including recent TV roles on CBS’ “Blue Bloods” and NBC’S “The Blacklist” — being able to write and perform his own material has given him an outlet he hasn’t enjoyed since he performed in a boy band in high school.
“I feel the most fulfilled when I’m creating something myself,” he said. “It’s one thing to perform someone else’s words and portray different characters, but to bring my own emotions and stories and experiences from my mind to the stage has been a pipe dream of mine. This ’rona moment has really made the time for me.”
Breckenridge was a high school sophomore when he moved with his family to Fallbrook from Lompoc in 2001. Invigorated by Fallbrook High’s robust drama program, he quickly became a standout at the school, and then at Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista and at San Diego Junior Theatre. Breckenridge credits Moonlight founder Kathy Brombacher and Fallbrook High drama teacher Florine Villane as mentors who developed his talent and gave him roles not usually played by Black actors, like the title role in Li’l Abner and Albert Peterson in “Bye Bye Birdie.”
After high school, Breckenridge earned a degree from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music then moved to New York, where he landed his first Broadway role just three months later. His Broadway credits include “The Scottsboro Boys” and the La Jolla Playhouse-born musical “Come From Away,” where he was working as an understudy for five roles and as the show’s dance captain when COVID-19 hit.
For the first two months of the pandemic, Breckenridge quarantined alone in his Hamilton Heights apartment with his Wheaten terrier, Teddy. That’s when he wrote all of the songs for his new album, accompanying himself on ukulele. The lyrics, he said, reflect that period, with nothing but time on his hands to reflect on his life choices, his family, his mental health and past relationships. The album’s title is “Monotony.”
“It was reflective on my head space and emotional space when my show was dead-ended and I was in my small apartment with my dog and that’s all there was. That was the epitome of monotony,” he said. “It deals with all the shades and emotions we end up going through when we’re thrust into this monotonous stage where silence can be so loud sometimes. It forced me to recall failed relationships, my own struggles with anxiety and depression, and my experiences as an African-american male in this current time in society.”
Last May, when it became clear Broadway wasn’t going to return for a long time, Breckenridge sublet his apartment and moved back home to Fallbrook. He said it has been a joy reconnecting with his mom, brother and old friends and having time to work from afar with a producer on his debut album. The first single, the wistful love song “Come to Me,” was released last month, and its video — filmed mostly on a sunny beach in Southern California with backup dancers — has racked up 22,000 views from around the world.
The soon-to-be-released third single, “Home Is Where the Art Is,” is about the guilt he felt moving so far from his family 18 years ago. Another song with deep personal meaning is “Six Minutes,” about the last phone conversation he had with his dad in 2019, just three days before his father died of a heart attack.
Breckenridge said that if all goes well, he’ll move back to New York in mid- to late summer to get back to work on “Come From Away.” He’s also eager to see if the album’s release will offer him some concert opportunities. He said this unplanned year away from work has been difficult but also fruitful.
“It was Mother Nature’s plan for us all to sit down for a second. With this wake-up call, there have been many pros in a sea of cons. But for me, this has been a godsend moment. I am excited to get back to the show, but also a little torn and hopeful that I can live in this moment a little more.”
For more on Breckenridge’s music and theater work, visit j-breckenridge.com.