Gary Neal Johnson as Scrooge in KCRep’s 2007 production of “A Christmas Carol” (photo by Don Ipock)
After owning the role for 24 years, the beloved KC actor announced his retirement
The man who 24 years ago would become the most recognized actor in Kansas City — the one whose image would dominate Kansas City Repertory Theatre publicity materials in the months leading up to Christmas through New Year’s Eve, the man whose face was virtually a permanent presence in newspapers and magazines and on billboards and websites, a man who by any measure enjoyed an impressive level of fame in a medium-sized theater town at the center of a sprawling metropolitan area in two states — didn’t aspire to any of that when he was in his 20s.
No, Gary Neal Johnson, born and raised in Kansas City and one of the town’s most identifiable professional actors, wanted to be a newsman.
But while studying broadcast journalism at the University of Missouri he performed in plays as an amateur (as he had done in high school). And he experienced what so many actors before him had: the siren call of theater.
“I graduated and thought about it and decided I’m not ready to be a journalist yet, I’m not ready to be a reporter,” Johnson said. So he enrolled in the UMKC theater graduate program. Before long he found himself among a group of actors who performed often at the town’s two professional dinner theaters — Tiffany’s Attic, which was just north of the Country Club Plaza on Main Street, and the Waldo Astoria, near 75th and Wornall. The owner/founders, Richard Carrothers and Dennis Hennessy, added Johnson to a group of actors who became a sort of unofficial repertory company.
In those days, Johnson said, he was working in shows at the two playhouses almost nonstop. Rehearsals for one show would overlap with public performances of another.
“They kept me busy 50 weeks a year,” he said. “That’s an exaggeration. An actor’s life is all about finding as much work as you can, but that work has to fit into a schedule. You can’t really do more than four plays a year because of scheduling.”
Then Johnson decided to try Los Angeles, the center of the universe for TV and movies.
“That was the summer of ’75, I think,” he said. He landed gigs as a day player on TV series in production — “Baa Baa Black Sheep” was one. And while so many young actors succumbed to the allure of the Hollywood make-believe factory, Johnson did not. He was back in Kansas City before long.
“I was happy to leave,” he said. “It wasn’t my place. If I had gone to New York, I might have stayed. Came back Thanksgiving of ’77 and once again the dinner theater called and said, ‘We have a show for you that’ll keep you busy for a while.’”
Before long he also joined the company of what was then called Missouri Repertory Theatre. In those days the Rep functioned as a true repertory company. Actors would be hired for the season and play a range of roles, everything from leads to walk-ons. At the time, the Rep put out a national tour each year. There was at least one season when the company could make the boast that its annual road company literally toured coast to coast.
Johnson recalled that the year he worked on the tour, its itinerary began in Kingston, New York, and wrapped up in El Paso.
“For 10 weeks we played every other night,” he recalled. “A lot of small towns but some big towns, too.”
Eventually Rep management did away with the tour. And it also ceased being a true repertory company. From then on, it staged a season of shows, each with an individual cast, whose members didn’t necessarily appear in other Rep shows.
In 1982, Johnson landed his first role in the Rep’s annual “Christmas Carol” production. He played a small part — Old Joe the Beetler, who late in the play is seen bargaining for items from Scrooge’s house for resale. That year he also played Young Gentleman, a utilitarian walk-on. The next year he again played Old Joe, but this time was double-cast as the ghost of Jacob Marley, a brief but highly memorable role. He played both parts for three years. In 1986 he began playing Charles Dickens (sometimes identified as the Storyteller) and kept that role for 14 years.
The following year he stepped into the role of Scrooge and has kept it for 25 years. Only twice was “A Christmas Carol” packed away in mothballs — in 2009 when a new musical, “A Christmas Story,” filled the calendar space normally occupied by the Dickens classic, and again in 2020, when COVID precautions shuttered theaters across the country.
The time off gave Johnson a chance to reflect.
“It was nice to be around family at Christmas,” he said. “I started thinking about it then. In fact, I believe it was in 2022 I thought maybe I didn’t want to do it anymore, and so each year for the last three years I’ve bumped it up a year. I decided it was time for me to quit. I’m 75 and I’m feeling good right now, but the thought of being up there doing it and maybe not feeling so good… I decided to get out while the getting is good.”
So Johnson holds the longevity record. He was the seventh actor to play Scrooge.
Most of the actors who had played Scrooge “were three years and out. The longest before me was (the late Gary Holcombe, who played the role) seven years.”
That said, Johnson does appreciate some of the attention that comes with being a high-profile actor. And he enjoys some of the benefits of fame.
“The picture of Scrooge was in the newspaper a lot,” he said. “I’ve got a stack of interviews I’ve done over the years. But it was just because I was the guy playing the guy. I’d get stopped a lot in stores and restaurants. People wanted to talk about their personal connection to the play, and I loved hearing about that.”
Back in 2006 Johnson earned an asterisk on his resume when he was hired to understudy Stacy Keach as King Lear at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. He understudied Keach again when the production was restaged at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.
Johnson had played the role once — and memorably — for the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. The reason the producers tapped him was that Keach had suffered a stroke that did not affect him in terms of mobility or speech but sapped his energy.
Johnson said he went on as Lear three or four times. Johnson was prepared to do as many performances as circumstances required.
“The director, Robert Falls, took me aside and said, ‘Now Gary, Stacy has been told by his doctors they don’t want him to do two shows in a row. So you’ll be doing all the matinees and maybe some of the evening performances.’”
Johnson was ready and willing but then the producers got wind of what Falls had said. They put their collective foot down. Audiences had paid to see Stacy Keach and that’s what the show would deliver.
Johnson was philosophical about it. It has been said that artists don’t need to seek humility, because humility will certainly find them. Just before one of the performances, Johnson recalled, he stood in the wings ready to make his entrance, and a voice came booming over the house sound system: “Ladies and gentlemen, at this performance the role normally played by Stacy Keach will be played by Gary Neal Johnson.”
Johnson: “And you could hear the audience going, ‘“Oooh, nooo.’”
So what will Gary Neal Johnson in retirement look like? Will we see him on stage again? That depends.
“I’ve gotten picky as far as other things,” he said. “I’m still open to other projects. But I’m not looking for them and I’m not actively seeking work. I like retirement, frankly. Don’t give me a book and say, ‘Here, memorize this book and stand in front of 400 people every night.’ That just doesn’t appeal to me.”
Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s production of “A Christmas Carol” runs Nov. 22-Dec. 27. For more information, visit kcrep.org or call the box office at 816-235-2700.
