On Palm Sunday weekend, actor Ted Neeley will once again step into Little Art Theatre to screen the film to which he’s been inextricably tied in the title role for five decades, “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

The experience will look much like it has the past times he’s visited: The desert will bloom across the screen, Roman guards in purple tank tops and camo will stride into frame and audiences will sing refrains of “Hosanna, hey sanna, sanna sanna ho,” with Neeley among them in the theater seats.

The only difference this time is that it will be the last time.

Neeley will be in town Friday–Sunday, March 27–29 for three screenings of the 1973 film version of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” in a stop on what he and longtime manager Frank Munoz have dubbed his “Farewell Tour.”

Yellow Springs has seen Neeley three times before, in 2015, 2017 and 2019, via the ministrations of longtime villager and “Superstar” superfan Gilah Pomeranz Anderson, who’s part of the “Team Neeley” road crew and social media management. During his first visit to the village, Neeley and the late Barry Dennen, who played Pontius Pilate, came for a weekend of screenings and conversation. Back then, Neeley told the News that playing Jesus had had a profound effect on his life in the years that followed filming.

Originally released as a concept album before becoming a Broadway show, “Jesus Christ Superstar” was among the earliest rock operas, pairing electric guitars with the final days of Jesus’ life. With music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, the work presented Jesus as a man who questioned, doubted and was occasionally overwhelmed by the movement around him.

That framing drew young audiences in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“The main thing [fans] love the most is that it looks at Jesus as a man,” Neeley told the News in 2015, ahead of his first visit to the village. “And everybody can relate to that, because they can see a little bit of themselves in the characters.”

But the production also drew backlash, with some relegating it to the realms of blasphemy. When Neeley first performed in the show as part of the ensemble on Broadway, he said protesters crowded the sidewalks outside the theater. He invited critics inside to watch before judging, and many stayed.

The controversy followed the project to film. Director Norman Jewison later received the blessing of Pope Paul VI, helping clear the way for the movie’s 1973 release, which cemented Neeley’s long association with its title role.

“When you play the most important character in the history of the world and people perceive you that way, it affects you,” he said. “Even to pretend to walk in those sandals every day of the week, I am lifted and elevated.”

The News caught up with Neeley again this month, more than a decade since his first appearance in Yellow Springs. He said that feeling of elevation from a role he first played at 30 still sustains him now at 82, as he prepares to make his final pass through the village.

“I’m lucky to still be alive, first of all,” Neeley said with a laugh. “I am overwhelmed with the fact that it’s actually so successful. … People are crazy about it because they’ve introduced several generations of children … to the film, and the children love it too. So it’s a miracle, honestly, a miracle.”

The miracle continued in 2014, when Neeley reprised his role for an Italian stage production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” 40 years after the film’s release. The show was initially intended to run for six weeks, but extended over five years, with runs stretching beyond Italy into other European countries.

“We had such a magnificent experience,” Neeley said.

And he said the miracle extended into his personal life, too: Neeley met his wife, Leeyan, while filming “Jesus Christ Superstar”; she was an ensemble dancer and appeared in both “Simon Zealotes” and “King Herod’s Song.”

“It changed my life, and it changed it for the better,” Neeley said.

It’s one of the reasons, Neeley said, that he still talks about the film less like a job and more like a gift. And though he acknowledged that even the most beloved rituals don’t go on forever, he said it’s also why he’s loath to say that a farewell tour means he’s going to retire or sever his connection to “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

“To be honest with you, I haven’t decided any of that,” he said. “Cher has been doing a farewell tour for over 20 years.”

With a laugh, he added: “If she can do that, I’ll give it a shot.”

In practice, Neeley’s manager Munoz said, the farewell tour means that once Neeley visits a theater, he doesn’t go back.

“We’ve technically been on this farewell tour since December of ’24,” Munoz said.

The tour has moved through a number of states since then, including Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, Texas and Michigan. Coming up this year are Easter weekend screenings in Orinda and Sacramento, California.

Another aspect of the farewell, Munoz said, is the increasing difficulty in finding independent theaters that can host an event like the one he and Neeley bring. When they began touring in 2013, Munoz said, they set their sights on community venues where they could get to know the folks in charge and work together to create a fun event. Since the pandemic, a number of their old stomping grounds have disappeared from the map.

They’ve tried the big chains, too, but Munoz said the lack of dedicated point people and the strain of corporate rigidity have made them inelegant substitutes for small theaters.

“There’s no projectionist at these places — it’s often a teenager who just punches a button,” Munoz said, adding that he’s seen big venues, not used to special events, roll the wrong movie.

In that sense, the tour is also something of a “goodbye” to the way Neeley has taken “Jesus Christ Superstar” on the road, and to the relationship those events have long had with theaters like the Little Art.

After more than a decade watching “Jesus Christ Superstar” with fans, Neeley has, perhaps, seen the film more times than anyone else — the events in Yellow Springs will mark screenings number 423, 424 and 425 since 2013. Nevertheless, he said the film keeps revealing new things to him.

“Every time that we do the screenings, I see things in the film that I hadn’t seen before,” he said.

Part of what he sees every time, he said, is a group of dear friends — some of whom are now gone from the world, but who live eternally on the screen.

“The only bad thing about it is we’ve lost several of our cast members,” Neeley said, adding with a wistful laugh: “They’re celebrating now, and I try to reach them all the time, but they never call me back.”

Carl Anderson, whose turn as Judas in the film is legendary, died in 2004. Neeley had already performed with Anderson in “Jesus Christ Superstar” on Broadway as part of the ensemble, with both understudying the roles they would eventually set to film. Famously, Neeley originally auditioned to play Judas in the stage show, but said he couldn’t imagine anyone but Anderson in the role on film.

“Every time I see the movie, I love seeing what everybody does, but Carl — oh my God,” he said. “There are so many moments with Carl that are so precious and so powerful.”

Neeley and Munoz also noted the death last year of Bob Bingham, who sang the part of Caiaphas with a deep, resonant bass. And they spoke with tenderness of Barry Dennen, whose voice still turns the opening words of “Pilate’s Dream” — “I dreamed I met a Galilean…” — into a haunted prayer on screen.

“We miss him tremendously,” Munoz said. “But he’s there in spirit at all of these screenings.”

Still, Neeley said he returns, again and again, to what the role has given him — and to what, in turn, it keeps giving other people.

Over the years, he’s met with thousands of fans at screenings who want to share a word, a memory or a hug in the lobby after the credits have rolled. One fan interaction has never left him, he said: As he was standing in a theater lobby talking to a couple, their young daughter stepped out from where she’d been hiding behind her mother’s legs, clearly ready to speak her truth.

“She looked up at me and said, ‘Mr. Neeley, you are my Jesus,’” he said.

It’s the kind of interaction, Neeley said, that explains why he’s taking his “farewell” slowly, and why retiring in full is hard to think about.

“I’m gonna miss it terribly, because everybody who comes up to talk to me and we hug, it’s just absolutely incredible,” Neeley said. “They make me feel like we’re all just a big, beautiful family.”

And as he prepared to bid “goodbye” to Yellow Springs for the last time, he insisted that his story is one of gratitude: a rock-and-roll drummer from Texas who got to sing those songs, in that place, with those people, and be met for years after with open arms.

“I’m the luckiest man alive,” he said.

“Jesus Christ Superstar” with Ted Neeley will screen Friday–Sunday, March 27–29, at Little Art Theatre; go to http://www.littleart.com or http://www.tedneeley.com for ticket information.