In Memoriam: Tony Walton

	Tony Walton

Tony Walton, one of the greatest scenic and costume designers of his generation, died on March 2. The cause was complications from a stroke. He was 87.

Also a noted illustrator, producer, and director, Walton was a complete man of the theatre, in addition to a distinguished career in film. Born on Walton-on-Thames, England in 1934, he attended the boys' boarding school Radley College before enrolling in London's Slade School of Fine Art. After his mandatory military service in the Royal Air Force, he began establishing himself on Broadway and in Hollywood and London.

Among Walton's early projects were scenery and costumes for the whimsical cult musical Valmouth (1958), based on the novel by Ronald Firbank, and Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella (1960), both in the West End. His design for the West End musical revue One Over the Eight (1961) made innovative use of scenic projections. His Broadway debut was with the flop comedy Once There Was a Russian but he soon scored a major success with scenery and costumes for the smash hit A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962).

After the success of Forum, Walton delivered a steady stream of distinctive Broadway designs. The musical Golden Boy (1964) again made an extensive use of projections that was unusual for its time. The Apple Tree (1967) earned him his first Tony Award nomination, for costume design. For Pippin (1973), one of the biggest hits of the decade, Clive Barnes wrote in the New York Times, "Mr. Walton's scenery manages an almost impossible combination of Holy Roman Empire and Fifth Avenue chic. He has also provided scenery that will slide, fold, make itself scarce when necessary and, when equally necessary, even adaptable." It nabbed him his first Tony Award.

Many more memorable designs followed: The sinister, two-level environment, filled with George Grosz-style imagery, for the original production of Chicago (1975); the neon-and-deco setting for the revue Sophisticated Ladies (1981); and the whirling turntable concept that dazzlingly supported the art-versus-reality theme of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing (1984). At a time when the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center was derided as an unworkable space, he proved the naysayers wrong with a trio of hits: The House of Blue Leaves (1986), The Front Page (1986), and Anything Goes (1987), each of which made cunning use of the space. Later successes included the haunting hotel ballroom, filled with glided chairs, for Grand Hotel (1989); the startlingly spare New York apartment, dominated by a two-sided Wassily Kandinsky canvas, for Six Degrees of Separation (1990); the over-the-top tribute to a bygone Broadway for the The Will Rogers Follies; and the evocation of Depression-era Atlantic City in Steel Pier (1997). His Off Broadway design credits ran to more than three dozen shows.

Introduced to Walt Disney by his first wife, Julie Andrews, Walton was hired as a visual consultant to the film Mary Poppins (1965). Much of his subsequent film work was for the director Sidney Lumet, for example recreating the glamour of between-the-wars luxury travel in Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and reinventing L. Frank Baum's Oz as a gritty, glittery Manhattan for The Wiz (1978). His films with Lumet also included The Sea Gull (1968), Equus (1977), Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), Prince of the City (1981), and Deathtrap (1982). Other films included Ken Russell's The Boy Friend (1971) and, for Mike Nichols, Heartburn (1986) and Regarding Henry (1991).

Walton's opera designs included The Rape of Lucretia (Edinburgh Festival, 1963), The Love of Three Oranges (Sadler's Wells 1963), Otello (Spoleto Festival, Italy, 1965), The Midsummer Marriage (Royal Opera House, London, 1968), The Cunning Little Vixen (Santa Fe Opera, 1975), and Tosca (San Francisco Opera, 1992). His many ballet designs included Harp Concerto (San Francisco Ballet, 1973), Who Cares? (Pacific Northwest Ballet, 1992), Jewels (Miami City Ballet, 1995), St. Louis Woman (Dance Theatre of Harlem, 2003), and Sleeping Beauty (American Ballet Theatre, 2007).

Among his many honors, Walton earned an Academy Award for Bob Fosse's All That Jazz, an Emmy Award for Death of a Salesman, and Tony Awards for Pippin, The House of Blue Leaves, and Guys and Dolls (1992), the latter featuring a Technicolor-hued portrayal of Damon Runyon's New York. He also received Drama Desk Awards for the musical Shelter (1973), Pippin, The House of Blue Leaves, the Broadway comedy Social Security (1986) and Guys and Dolls. He was also given an Outer Critics Circle Award for the Broadway comedy Lend Me a Tenor (1989), a Lucille Lortel Award for the Off-Broadway drama A Fair Country (1996), and two Henry Hewes Design Awards, for The House of Blue Leaves and She Loves Me (1994). He was the recipient of two Emmy Awards, for the children's special Free to Be...You and Me (1974) and Linda Ronstadt's Canciones de Mi Padre (1989). Other honors include a lifetime achievement award from the Art Directors Guild.

Walton's final feature film was Regarding Henry. He continued designing on Broadway until 2008, signing off with the musical A Tale of Two Cities. By then, however he had segued into another career, as a director. Among his productions for the Off-Broadway company Irish Repertory Theatre were The Importance of Being Earnest (1996), Major Barbara (1997), After the Ball (2004), The Devil's Disciple (2007), Candida (2010), and Transport (2014). For Goodspeed Opera House, he directed a revival of the musical Where's Charley? (2004). He also staged A Song at Twilight at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, Long Island and Oops! The Big Apple Circus Stage Show, which toured 60 cities. His graphic work was published in Playbill, Theatre Arts, and Vogue, among others.

Also, during the 1960s, Walton, Harold Prince, and Richard Pilbrow produced the West End editions of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1963) and She Loves Me (1964). With his Forum Ventures (in partnership with Pilbrow), he produced Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Company, and A Little Night Music, also in the West End. He also found time to illustrate a number of children's books, including The Great American Mousical and Dumpy the Dump Truck, both by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton, his daughter by Andrews.

Walton and Andrews divorced in 1968, although they remained close friends. He married the writer Gen LeRoy in 1991. She survives him, along with daughters Emma Walton Hamilton and Bridget LeRoy and five grandchildren.

A kindly personality with a lively wit, a wide circle of friends, and an endless fund of wickedly funny show business stories, Walton was a beloved figure who mentored several generations of designers. He was accepted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1991. Few deserved that distinction more than he. --David Barbour