Tonight, June 6th, designer and director Tony Walton will receive The Goodspeed Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre at Goodspeed Musicals' Gala event RAZZLE DAZZLE. Julie Andrews will present Walton with the award at the event. Master of Ceremonies Noah Racey, best known to Connecticut audiences for his work at the Goodspeed Opera House in Where's Charley? and Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn, will lead the evening's festivities. The event will include a cocktail hour and an exquisite dinner followed by a live auction and entertainment by some of Broadway's finest performers celebrating the incomparable talent and artistic vision of Tony, Oscar, and Emmy Award-winning honoree Tony Walton. Mr. Walton and 2005 Goodspeed Award recipient Julie Andrews worked together at Goodspeed Musicals on both The Boy Friend at the Goodspeed Opera House in 2005 and The Great American Mousical at The Norma Terris Theatre in 2012. Proceeds from the Gala will support Goodspeed Musicals' Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre. This year's honoree is well known as Director, Costume and Set Designer for theater, film and television. As director and designer, Walton has been honored with 16 Tony Award nominations for his many Broadway sets and/or costumes. Pippin, House of Blue Leaves and Guys and Dolls won him Tonys; he was also the designer of the settings for the 10-year run of Madison Square Garden's annual production of A Christmas Carol. Among his twenty films, Walt Disney's Mary Poppins, Ken Russell's The Boy Friend,; Sidney Lumet's The Wiz and Murder on the Orient Express, together earned him five Academy Award nominations. Bob Fosse's All That Jazz won him an Oscar and Volcker Schlondorf's Death of a Salesman an Emmy. Previous honorees include Julie Andrews, Martin Charnin, Kristin Chenoweth, Ira Gershwin, Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Herman, William Ivey Long, Thomas Meehan, Michael P. Price, Gerald Schoenfeld, Stephen Schwartz, Susan Stroman, Charles Strouse, Tommy Tune and Paul Williams. For tickets or to reserve a spot in the Razzle Dazzle Commemorative Journal, contact Mary Miko at 860.873.8664 ext. 368 or mmiko@goodspeed.org.
