'The Waltons' star Richard Thomas making OKC debut on 'To Kill a Mockingbird' national tour

Although he is best known for playing John-Boy on the popular 1970s television series "The Waltons," Richard Thomas' acting career spans 65 years and ranges from his Tony-nominated turn in the Broadway revival of Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes" to his starring role in the 1990 mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's "It."

These days, the lifelong performer is criss-crossing the country to play the iconic Atticus Finch in the national tour of Oscar winner Aaron Sorkin's ("The Social Network," "The West Wing") celebrated stage version of "To Kill a Mockingbird," which debuted on Broadway in 2018.

"I'm a Broadway baby: James Earl Jones and I made our Broadway debuts in the same play way back at the Court Theatre. So, Broadway is my home turf. But taking a play across the country ...  what you realize is that theater has meaning all across the country, not just on Broadway," said Thomas, who was 7 years old when he appeared with Jones in the 1958 historical drama "Sunrise at Campobello."

"It does have this wonderful feeling of freshness as you go, because every week or two weeks or three weeks, you have another opening night, you've got another theater, you've got another audience."

Richard Thomas to make OKC debut on 'To Kill a Mockingbird' tour

A native New Yorker, Thomas, 72, has been starring in the national tour of "To Kill a Mockingbird" since it launched in spring 2022. The tour will make its Oklahoma City debut Oct. 10-15 at Civic Center Music Hall as part of OKC Broadway's 2023-2024 season.

"This year ... there's so many places I've never played before, so I'm very excited about that. And I've never played in Oklahoma City," Thomas told The Oklahoman by phone from a tour stop in Fort Worth, Texas. "I did a gig there one summer at the Oklahoma Arts Institute years back, teaching at Quartz Mountain. I had a wonderful, wonderful experience there, so I'm looking forward to it."

Directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher, Sorkin's stage adaptation of Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in 2019 became the highest-grossing play in Broadway history. On Broadway, Jeff Daniels, University of Oklahoma alumnus Ed Harris and Greg Kinnear played the coveted part of Atticus Finch — a principled small-town Alabama attorney who defends a young Black man accused of a terrible crime — with Thomas taking over the role for the tour.

"We love working together. He is just a gift. ... He's an absolutely sublime Atticus. It's really a joy having him as my scene partner every night," said Jacqueline Williams, who co-stars in the national tour as Calpurnia, the Black housekeeper and nanny helping the widowed Atticus raise his two children, Scout and Jem.

Ahead of the tour's OKC arrival, Thomas talked with The Oklahoman about the legacy of "The Waltons," the joys of touring and the beloved character of Atticus Finch, famously portrayed by Gregory Peck in the Oscar-winning 1962 film:

Q: Why do you think Atticus Finch is such a beloved character?

Thomas: People talk about him as though he was a real person. They talk about him as though he was a real historical figure, that he was not a character in a book. He's so vivid, and the aspirations that he represents for all of us as Americans are so strong, that he just jumps off the page. And it's a wonderful achievement of Harper Lee.

Q: Why do you think this character has developed that aura where he seems so real to us?

Thomas: Well, decency and kindess. ... He's quixotic in that he is taking something on, and he doesn't think it's doomed. But given the society in which he lives, at the time during which he lives, it's virtually a doomed endeavor from the start. ... So, he's this decent man who's trying to do the right thing, he wants to do the right thing, he knows what the right thing is to do. But he doesn't succeed at it.

So, you have this beautiful mix of rightness, and a just and decent person, like all of us, failing. I think that that's the poignancy of Atticus. People think of him as a winner, but that's just because he's such an exemplary person.

Q: What do you think is particularly resonant about Aaron Sorkin's version of this story?

Thomas: Aaron started working on this well before the murder of George Floyd and this wonderfully resurgent social justice movement that really caught fire in 2020. ... So, there's a prescient quality in what he was doing, which I think is amazing.

I think that, first of all, the story's resonant because this story's always resonant. It's always a valuable story to tell for us, because it's our story as Americans — for better and worse. It's a story of one of our particular original sins, which shifts and changes and evolves in terms of how we manage to address it. But it's always present — and trying to forget it doesn't make it less present.

But it's a story very much of our aspirations to be our best selves and how we fall short of them. And when we do fall short of them, what do we do? Do we give up, do we become cynical, do we change our minds? Or do we just keep trying?

Nations have their narratives — and more than one; we have several — but this is definitely one of our national narratives. ...

One of the things that Aaron has done, which is so wonderful ... is that he's written it and he's adapted it not slavishly and as a sort of museum piece. It's not 'oh, this is where you're gonna see all your favorite moments from "To Kill a Mockingbird."' He's really made it his own.

Obviously, he's faithful to Harper Lee's spirit and to the time and place of the story and to the characters. But the lenses through which he views these different subjects are very, very germane to how we are thinking now. ... We don't need another white savior narrative through which to view this issue. So, the first thing you have to do is he's taken (Atticus) off the pedestal, he's given him a lot to learn ... and he's given a great sense of humor, which is one of my favorite things about what Aaron has done.

He's a kind, funny, relaxed, happy man in his world — and that world is turned upside down for him.

Q: You opted this year to extend your run with the national tour. What do you like about traveling across the country with this show?

Thomas: I like it for a whole bunch of reasons. First of all, I have to say it's really challenging. Walking from your apartment on 58th and Seventh down to 47th Street to go in the stage door of the Barrymore (Theatre) and do a play is a whole hell of a lot easier and can be more convenient. (Chuckles)

But touring is a very old way of being a performer: moving from town to town with a company — with a troupe of actors, dancers, singers, jugglers, whatever the hell the circus — it goes all the way back. So for me, it's plugged into a very ancient way of doing what we do. ... So, I feel very connected to all that when I'm touring.

I love seeing different parts of the country ... and you realize that there is this beautiful network of theaters all across the country.

Q: You've been acting your whole life, but so many people remember you primarily for 'The Waltons.' What are your thoughts on still being so closely identified with John-Boy?

Thomas: It was the most successful television show in America for many, many years when there were only three networks. The thing you have to remember about a show like that is if we got less than a 26 share, we were worried. We had more millions and millions of people watching us — not just in America, but around the world — on that show that it would be very hard for any show today to achieve that kind of viewership on such an immediate basis.

Not only was it staggeringly successful for a long time, it was a unique show. It was a groundbreaker. It was a show that opened up a whole set of possibilities for television. John-Boy was not anything like any leading man characters that had ever been on a television series. ... It was a very big deal, and all of us who were on it, if we chose to take advantage of it, were given a great rocket to be on. ... If you're a lucky enough actor to be offered a part and to play a part that becomes so vivid and so real to people that they identify you with it, that's a great blessing for an actor.

To have that experience of making a character so vivid that people call you by his name is a wonderful thing. It's a great privilege, and I feel very humbled by it. But at the same time, it was an accomplishment that I'm very proud of.

So, it will follow me literally to my grave — and that's fine with me.

'TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD'

• When: Oct. 10-15.

• Where: Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N Walker.

• Information: https://www.okcbroadway.com/mockingbird.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Richard Thomas makes OKC bow in Aaron Sorkin's 'To Kill a Mockingbird'