Friends and Family Gather at Bay Street Theater to Honor Tony Walton

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts hosted a star-studded celebration of Oscar, Tony and Emmy Award-winning designer and director Tony Walton was held live and in-person on Thursday, August 26, at 5 p.m. at Bay Street Theater.

The star-studded evening was hosted by Tony Award-nominee Melissa Errico, and featured appearances both in-person and virtually by longtime collaborators including Tovah Feldshuh, Stephen Schwartz, Alec Baldwin, Ken Billington, Walter Bobbie, and others, who paid tribute to Tony Walton's six-decade career in theater, film, and television-a career that included award-winning Broadway and film productions such as Pippin, House of Blue Leaves, and Guys and Dolls, and the films Mary Poppins, The Boy Friend, The Wiz, and Murder on the Orient Express, to name a few. The tribute culminated with the special presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award by Executive Director Tracy Mitchell and Artistic Director Scott Schwartz. Walton was also joined by his extended family, including Julie Andrews, and daughters, writer Bridget LeRoy and Bay Street cofounder Emma Walton Hamilton.

Tony Walton is an award-winning director and production and costume designer for Broadway, Off-Broadway, film, television, ballet, and opera. He has been honored with 16 Tony Award Nominations for his Broadway sets and/or costumes, winning for his work on Pippin, House of Blue Leaves, and Guys and Dolls. Among his 20 films, Mary Poppins, The Boy Friend, The Wiz and Murder on the Orient Express earned him five Academy Award nominations. He won the Oscar for Bob Fosse's All That Jazz, and the Emmy for Death of a Salesman. Walton's designs for Broadway include Bob Fosse's original productions of Chicago and Pippin; Tommy Tune's Grand Hotel and The Will Rogers Follies; Scott Ellis's She Loves Me, 1776, and Picnic; Harold Pinter's Moonlight and Ashes to Ashes; Jerry Zaks's House of Blue Leaves, The Man Who Came to Dinner, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anything Goes, and Guys and Dolls, and the recent Annie Get Your Gun and A Tale of Two Cities, among many others. He was the Production Designer for Julie Andrews' 2003 revival of The Boy Friend at Bay Street Theater and for Goodspeed Opera House, followed by a national U.S. tour in 2005.

During the last 22 years, Walton has turned his hand to directing, and has directed productions of Wilde, Shaw, Coward, and others for New York's Irish Rep, San Diego's Old Globe, Sarasota's Asolo Rep, John Drew Theatre at Guild Hall, and Bay Street Theater. He both directed and designed the smash hit revival of Where's Charley? for the Goodspeed Opera House and the U.S. premiere of Noel Coward's After the Ball for the Irish Repertory Theatre, and the recent Candida starring Melissa Errico. Other direction includes Noel Coward's A Song at Twilight for Bay Street Theater, Gen LeRoy's Missing Footage for San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, and Oops! The Big Apple Circus Stage Show for a 60-city U.S. tour.

In 1991, Tony Walton was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame.

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