Globe-trotting Broadway actor reveals travel secrets

Actor Jay Armstrong Johnson, 37, made his Broadway debut in the Tony-winning 2009 revival of “Hair” and has been a fixture of New York Theater ever since, appearing in musicals including Phantom of the Opera and On the Town. He regularly performs in concerts across the city and country; he was also a recurring cast member of the Priyanka Chopra-headlined Quantico on ABC.

In October, for the ninth year, he was back with his Hocus Pocus-themed Halloween concert evening, “I Put a Spell on You,” which is a fundraiser for the Ali Forney Center, a New York City nonprofit that provides shelter and services for LGBTQ+ youth who are experiencing homelessness. This year’s show took place at Webster Hall on Oct. 21, with guest stars including comedian/musician Todrick Hall and Tony winner J. Harrison Ghee.

As a working theater actor and cabaret performer, Armstrong Johnson spends large chunks of the year on the road. “When I’m not doing a long-term Broadway show, an eight-times-a-week situation, the way I make my money is by doing random gigs, mostly concerts all over the world,” he says. So far this year he’s tallied around 50,000 miles in the air.

Whether he’s off to the Midwest or Asia, Armstrong Johnson also wishes he could fly Cathay Pacific for every trip, after a recent experience heading to Bali. “I got this beautiful little Dopp kit with all of the things that I could potentially need for one of the longest flights of my entire life,” he says, noting that it wasn’t just the comfy seats that were, well, comfy. “The foot room was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. I’m not the tallest human in the world, but it was just the most comfortable. On one leg we were in economy, and even that was really nice.”

Armstrong Johnson lives with his partner and some friends in Manhattan’s East Harlem.

How to save money on Broadway tickets — and spy performers on their off time: If you want to get cheap tickets to a Broadway show, the two times of year that you want to travel to New York are the times when tourism is low. That’s September and October, and January and February. Those are the four months of the year when ticket prices will be minimal, sometimes even with two-for-one deals.

I like the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, which is where I made my Broadway debut. Right now, Moulin Rouge! is there, and the sound design on the show is just impeccable. And I love the design of the space, the painted ceilings with all the constellations. It holds a special place in my heart.

If you want to spot Broadway stars or performers, go to Glass House Tavern post-shows, around 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. The Tony award winner Alex Newell is essentially the owner of the place — they’re always in there, and always have their friends with them, so that’s a great spot. It’s right there in the middle of the Theater District on 47th Street, and it’s a white-tablecloth dining experience, but they also have a bar, which is where you’ll see the performers.

As a touring actor, one particular corner of America truly upended his expectations. Fargo, N.D., kind of blew me away. How artsy, how open, how many queer spaces, how many hole-in-the-wall establishments there were, mom-and-pop restaurants. They have this beautiful strip of them on Broadway there. One particular restaurant I loved was called Mezzaluna. Every person on the staff there, I wanted them to be my friend — they were wildly cool and wildly kind. We got to know the owner, who sat down with us while we were having dessert one night and gave us the history of how he ended up taking over the place. The next morning my friend Meghan Picerno and I ended up going to a tattoo and motorcycle convention with him; we almost got tattoos, but we had to get an Uber back to our matinee.

You really can take a full-size pillow on board without getting strange looks. Here’s how. Yep. I travel with a full-size pillow. The usual neck pillows never quite do it for me, but stuffing my pillow between me and the window always works for a nice flight’s nap — often inexpensive flights are the earliest, and I love my sleep. And we usually go out partying the days before we travel, which is chaos. I take my favorite pillow that I sleep with on a regular basis, which is like my teddy bear or my blanket. It’s a down feather pillow from Casper that’s so scrunchy, you can really fit it into any kind of bag, and I usually do in my backpack. Then I sit down and take it out.

First-time cruiser? Don’t make the mistake of booking reservations for every meal at the fanciest restaurants on board. I was a guest star on Celebrity Cruise lines this summer — it was the first cruise I’d ever been on, as a patron or a performer. And I was kind of treated like a patron: The guest contracts state you come on the ship, perform your show twice through the week you’re there, and the rest of the time you’re kind of just a cruiser. They offered a few fine dining experiences, and my friend and I went to a couple of them. Then we realized we enjoyed the buffet more. Sitting down for the dining experience was a waste of time. Going to the buffet and being able to choose whatever the hell you want, whenever the hell you want it, was much better, and the buffet was delicious.

If you find a place you love, make it your own and return year after year. I’ve been to the same place twice in the last year. My best friend and her family go there and rent this fantastic Airbnb on Water Island, which is one of the more remote islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands. There we had our little beach and our dinghies and our fried coconut shrimp, and we just floated in the water all day long looking at the sea turtles. And when I was a guest star on the cruise, we ended up back in St. John, so we took the day and went back to Water Island and our beach. I think it’s going to be a place that we go back to often.

I am a notorious overpacker, whether I’m doing an overnight stay somewhere or going on a six-month tour. You’re never ever going to wear as much as you pack — at least that’s what I learned when I was on tour. I’m such a shoe guy that I will pack my entire closet of shoes, which takes up so much space, so much weight. And I learned on tour that you only need three pairs: dressy shoes, sneakers and rehearsal shoes. No matter how long the trip is, you’re never going to need more than three pairs of shoes.

Don’t let flight-price sticker shock deter your adventures. I ended up going to Bali because some friends of mine were going there for vacation, and they had this huge, three-bedroom villa that they were renting. The flight was wildly expensive, but when you get to Bali, everything is wildly inexpensive. I got a 90-minute massage for $15, which normally would’ve been a $250 massage in New York City, so I tipped this person $100. So you have to take a 360-degree view of a trip: It might be expensive to get somewhere, but once you’re there it could be cheaper than a cheap flight to an expensive place.