Johnstone, Georgia

Johnson-Liff Associates was a casting agency established in 1975 by casting director and former stage manager Geoffrey Johnson and Vincent Liff. From its inception, Johnson-Liff was employed by high profile Broadway productions, such as hit musicals like The Wiz (1975), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1978) and Dreamgirls (1981) as well as prestigious plays, including Tom Stoppard’s Night and Day (1979) and Peter Schaffer’s Amadeus (1980).

During the 1980s and 1990s, Johnson-Liff dominated the New York theater casting scene by casting many of the imported hit British mega-musicals which dominated Broadway in that era, such as Cats, (1982), Song and Dance (1985), Me and My Girl (1986,) Les Miserables and Starlight Express in (1987), The Phantom of the Opera (1988), Aspects of Love (1990), Miss Saigon (1991) and Sunset Boulevard (1994).

Johnson-Liff Associates also cast new American Musicals, such as The Robber Bridegroom (1976), The 1940's Radio Hour (1979), Baby (1983), The Rink (1984), Wind in the Willows (1985), Raggedy Ann (1986), City of Angels (1989), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993), Victor / Victoria (1995), Big (1996), Steel Pier and Side Show (1997), Swing! (1999), Contact and Jane Eyre (2000) and The Producers (2001) as well as musical revivals such as The Most Happy Fella (1979), Oliver! (1984), 3 Penny Opera (1989), Guys and Dolls (1992), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1993), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1996), Kiss Me, Kate (1999), Jesus Christ Superstar (2000) and Flower Drum Song and Oklahoma! (2002).

Plays cast by Johnson-Liff include original plays such as Poor Murderer (1976), The Elephant Man (1979), Division Street (1980), Frankenstein and The Dresser (1981), Total Abandon (1983), Execution of Justice (1986), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1987), Lend Me a Tenor (1989), Lettice and Lovage (1990), Indiscretions (1995) Moon Over Buffalo (1995), Waiting in the Wings (1999) and The Smell of the Kill (2002) and revivals such as Mornings at Seven and The Philadelphia Story (1980), Macbeth (1981), Cyrano de Bergerac and Much Ado About Nothing (1984), Loot (1986), The Merchant of Venice and Orpheus Descending (1989) and Private Lives (1992).

In addition to its work in theater, Johnson-Liff worked simultaneously in the mediums of film and television. Their small screen credits include television movies such as, The Last Tenant (1978), Hollow Image, My Old Man and You Can't Go Home Again (1979), Death Penalty (1980), Pals (1981), Little Gloria...Happy at Last (1982) Threesome (1984), Picking Up the Pieces (1985) Intimate Strangers (1986) and The Image (1990) and television series’, including Ball 4 (1976), The Andros Targets, Edward and Mrs. Simpson and The Holocaust (1977), Co-ed Fever (1979), Another World, from 1983-1995, It's Not So Easy (1983), Full House and Kate and Allie (1984), All Is Forgiven (1986), Piece of Cake (1988) and Soul Man (1997). The agency also cast such films as Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978), Wired (1989), The Inner Circle (1991) and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999).

The company was dissolved in 2002. Vincent Liff died on February 25, 2003.

From the guide to the Georgia Johnstone papers regarding Agnes Moorehead, 1930-1974, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)