INTERVIEW: Jay Armstrong Johnson releases new album
Jay Armstrong Johnson, the star of Broadway’s On the Town, is a busy performer, singer and cabaret star. The actor’s new album, Jay Armstrong Johnson — Live at Feinstein’s / 54 Below (courtesy of Broadway Records), features numerous tracks from a wide variety of sources. Everything from “Love Runs Out” to “Johanna,” the songs are an eclectic bunch of tunes that showcase the diverse musical offerings of the singer.
Fans of Johnson, a native of Forth Worth, Texas, can check out the new album or catch his live show at Feinstein’s / 54 Below on Oct. 30 at 9:30 p.m. Fans should expect several songs from the new release and some Halloween surprises as well.
“It’s been quite a ride, a lot of fun, a lot of work,” Johnson said recently in a phone interview. “I always knew that I wanted to do some kind of solo act in New York City, and I just didn’t know when it was going to happen or what opportunities would arise.”
The idea for the album came to Johnson almost three years ago. He would jot down notes on his smartphone every time he heard a song that inspired him. These tunes would affect him in some way, and he would punch them into his phone and save them for another day. “And then over the course of three years a huge part of my notes section was full,” he said.
A friend who worked at 54 Below then reached out and asked Johnson if he would be interested in a solo act. “That’s when I referred to my notes section and saw that I maybe had a show in there, so I really started editing down and creating my dream show that I had been planning for three years,” he said.
That first time at the midtown cabaret venue was a special night for Johnson, and he plans to replicate some of it for his Oct. 30 concert. “It’s going to be most of the stuff from the album, but the concert is falling on All Hallow’s Eve, which happens to be one of my favorite nights of the year,” he said. “It’ll be the day before Halloween on a Sunday night, and I’ve kind of always had this fantasy in my head of recreating Hocus Pocus. And so we’re going to do my album, and then add some fun Halloween songs, and just get all dressed up in Halloween costumes and just have pretty much a big Halloween party that happens to be a concert as well, to indulge my childhood fantasies a bit.”
The eclectic nature of his live album is largely due to Johnson’s taste in music. He enjoys songs that are diverse, and he enjoys expressing those songs in creative ways. One of his influences is Sister Act 2, starring Whoopi Goldberg. He called the film a “big game changer” in terms of his musical knowledge and exploration. In the movie, Goldberg’s character likes all types of music, and Johnson said he wanted to adopt that tuneful taste for his own career.
“I knew that my show needed to be not just musical theater songs that Jay had done over the years but truly a plethora of different musical styles and forms because that’s kind of how my life has been lived since I saw that movie at the ripe age of 6 years old,” he said.
Of course, Johnson brings an impressive Broadway career to the Feinstein’s / 54 Below stage. In addition to On the Town, he worked on Hands on a Hardbody, Catch Me If You Can and opposite Emma Thompson in the New York Philharmonic’s Sweeney Todd. They were all opportunities for Johnson to advance his career, but On the Town seems to have stuck in his memory the most.
“It was my first lead role on Broadway,” he said of the show. “That had been my dream was to perform a lead. My [first] show I did was Hair, and I was a swing. And I understudied the lead. And my second show I was a standby for Aaron Tveit in Catch Me If You Can, so I didn’t even perform the show every night. Then my third show I was a pretty small supporting role, Hands on a Hardbody, which was a few years back, and we didn’t run very long. … I auditioned for On the Town as a summer stock production at Barrington Stage Company up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, so I was going from a Broadway show to summer stock just to be able to pay rent. And I didn’t realize that a summer stock gig just to like make a little bit of money on the side would turn into my first lead on Broadway. I mean it’s kind of unheard of for a summer stock show to get such acclaim out of town that it’s just pretty much a straight line to Broadway.”
Johnson said playing Chip in On the Town was the most electric part of his career so far, but it was also the hardest. He admitted to not having much of a social life during those months on Broadway. He took advantage of physical therapy, massage therapy and acupuncture throughout the run of the demanding, dance-heavy musical.
“It wasn’t really a tough singing role,” he said. “It wasn’t really the biggest acting role. What it was was a physical comedy role. I was wearing volleyball kneepads underneath my … suit for as many pratfalls and knee falls I was doing. It was truly the hardest year of my life, but you know it’s gotten me to where I am today. And I still miss and love the production, and kind of hope we do it again somewhere else in the future.”
That Sweeney Todd production with the Philharmonic was another highlight for sure. In fact, Johnson called it a dream come true to play the role of Anthony opposite Thompson, Bryn Terfel and Audra McDonald. “It came out of left field for me really,” he said. “Just to be able to be up there with Audra McDonald and Bryn Terfel, this opera great, and Emma Thompson, this A-list movie star, it was a humbling and ridiculously out-of-this-world experience. The level of performers that were in that show was only matched by their lovely spirits. Emma Thompson was giving me personal dialect coaching on 10-minute breaks. … I was speaking a little bit too posh for her taste. She said, ‘You’re not the British queen. You’re a bloody sailor.’ … Audra and I would talk about how Will Swenson and I did Hair together as my Broadway debut. They’re stars in their own right, but they taught me more about being a human more than being a performer even.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Jay Armstrong Johnson’s new album, Jay Armstrong Johnson — Live at Feinstein’s / 54 Below, is currently available. He will perform at the cabaret venue Oct. 30 at 9:30 p.m.
