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[RobertArmin] Good evening and welcome to the Fynsworth Alley chat room. [RobertArmin] Tonight, one of the treasures of the musical theatre and motion pictures -- set and costume designer, Tony Walton [RobertArmin] Good evening, Tony. [TonyWalton] Please [RobertArmin] That was in response to a verbal question -- may I call you Tony! [RobertArmin] The answer came before the question! [RobertArmin] You are very fast. [RobertArmin] There is so much to talk about in your career -- so very much... [RobertArmin] but let's start at the beginning. [TonyWalton] Holy Cow [RobertArmin] How did you become interested in designing for the theatre? [TonyWalton] AHH! In school, when I was in my mid-teens [TonyWalton] I began to realize my special subject -- physics, chemistry and biology -- [TonyWalton] which I was studying to prepare for a career in Medicine [TonyWalton] my Dad had been a remarkable surgeon [TonyWalton] These subjects were the ones I was doing the least well in, in my exams [TonyWalton] So that fact alone with the slight tendency to topple over [TonyWalton] if I saw a finger bleed [TonyWalton] gave me the hint that I might not be cut out to be a doctor [RobertArmin] And what was your first design? [TonyWalton] Through changing from the medically-related subjects to the classics [TonyWalton] Greek, Latin and so forth [TonyWalton] I found myself unexcited by learning acres of Virgil, Ovid or Horace [RobertArmin] Not much of that done anymore, unfortunately. [TonyWalton] So, when we were required to offer up our memorized Greek verse [TonyWalton] I would try to keep the other students amused by [TonyWalton] instead narrating something such as Stanley Holloway’s [TonyWalton] "Albert and the Lion" [TonyWalton] This did not go down well with the teachers [TonyWalton] So they sent me off to an art school in Oxford [TonyWalton] Somehow knowing before I did [TonyWalton] That I was interested in drawing and painting [TonyWalton] For example, I had been doing posters for the debating society and so on [TonyWalton] But as soon as I got to the art school, part time [TonyWalton] There was no further communication between my college and the teachers at the art school [TonyWalton] So I was able to steal for myself a great deal of time to work on my new enthusiasm [TonyWalton] which was marionettes [RobertArmin] Ahhh. [TonyWalton] And I worked through some Gilbert and Sullivan and so on [TonyWalton] And ultimately decided to take on the challenge of the Magic Flute [TonyWalton] Something that could be achieved with a great deal of special effects and so on [RobertArmin] So you started designing for marionette shows? [TonyWalton] Yes [TonyWalton] A famous and very distinguished painter, John Piper [TonyWalton] who had done the designs for all but one of Benjamin Britten's operas [TonyWalton] happened to come to one of the performances of THE MAGIC FLUTE [TonyWalton] and drifted backstage at the end [TonyWalton] looking like a gaunt, but glorious, medieval saint, a very daunting figure [TonyWalton] "Which one is Walton?" he said [TonyWalton] So I nervously popped up my finger [TonyWalton] and to my confusion, he then continued [TonyWalton] "You should do this." [TonyWalton] "What is this?" I said [TonyWalton] "Stage Design!" he replied [RobertArmin] [lots of laughter here] [TonyWalton] and the long and the short of it [TonyWalton] was that he encouraged me to go to the Slade School of Fine Art in London [TonyWalton] where he was an honorary teacher. [TonyWalton] While I was studying at the Slade [TonyWalton] I partially paid my way there by working as an assistant designer [TonyWalton] at Wimbledon Repertory Theatre [TonyWalton] A sort of year-round summer stock operation. [RobertArmin] Summer stock was a great way to learn your craft... [TonyWalton] which, scenically, involved banging the same old flats into new arrangements and slapping a new color on them [TonyWalton] An experience so totally opposed to the idealistic teaching of the Slade [TonyWalton] that I think of my education as being a sort of scramble up of these two approaches to theatre [RobertArmin] Which was more useful in the long run -- the experience in summer stock or the Slade School? [TonyWalton] I think they really are fifty-fifty [TonyWalton] The nuts and bolts, God knows, are essential [TonyWalton] but the Slade, at that time, vigorously tried to give beginning designers [TonyWalton] a key to their own gut responses to any given material [TonyWalton] In effect suggesting a sort of equivalent to the great designer Boris Aronson's credo [TonyWalton] That it is vital to become a baby again when approaching each new production [RobertArmin] Speaking of designers, Tristan asks: Do you have any designers you prefer to work with in the business? (i.e., Lighting, Sound...) [TonyWalton] I have been very lucky [TonyWalton] when not doing the costume design myself to work with such fabulous folk as [TonyWalton] Willa Kim and William Ivy Long [TonyWalton] with whom I've enjoyed thrilling marriages [TonyWalton] and in the Lighting area [TonyWalton] I've been lucky enough to work a great deal with Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer [TonyWalton] Paul Gallo and the great Richard Pilbrow, who’s been my very close chum since we both started out in London. [RobertArmin] MD130 asks: Who would you say had the biggest influence on your career? [TonyWalton] I think probably Boris Aronson [TonyWalton] He was kind enough to recommend me for such shows as THE APPLE TREE and PIPPIN when he was not himself [TonyWalton] able to undertake them. And when I first saw [TonyWalton] Broadway productions in the early Fifties [TonyWalton] During my pilot training in Canada [TonyWalton] The remarkable range of Boris' approach to different productions took my breath away [TonyWalton] For example, all though these of course are more recent, [TonyWalton] FIDDLER ON THE ROOF looks nothing like CABARET which looks nothing like COMPANY [TonyWalton] which looks nothing like FOLLIES [TonyWalton] They each could easily be by different designers [TonyWalton] Although, of course, Boris' sensibility is very clearly in all of them. [RobertArmin] I was lucky enough to begin my theatre-going career during the heyday of Boris Aronson. And I saw (and loved) the design for all of those shows. [TonyWalton] Great, good for you [RobertArmin] A talented young actress calling herself "Doria Hudson" asks: Of all the shows/movies you've designed sets/costumes for, which was the most fun to work on? [TonyWalton] I think it might have been a show which I worked on as co-writer, costume designer and director for The Big Apple Circus [TonyWalton] for a 60 city US tour, [TonyWalton] It was called OOPS! [TonyWalton] A title I'm proud to say I came up with as a generous gift to critics who like to incorporate your title into their reaction [TonyWalton] Luckily, in this instance [TonyWalton] we were joyfully received almost universally. [TonyWalton] It was a company of multiple nationalities [TonyWalton] mostly non-English speaking [TonyWalton] but all stunningly skilled in their various routines, many of which [TonyWalton] they'd rehearsed for a dozen years or so [TonyWalton] so they were startled, but surprisingly delighted [TonyWalton] to be invited to try something new [TonyWalton] with a rehearsal period of only a month [TonyWalton] The concept of the show was a collision between a touring Shakespearean troupe and an International Circus Company [TonyWalton] each of whom had accidentally been booked into the same theatre on the same night [RobertArmin] That's how the Black Crook got started -- an acting company combined with a ballet company. [TonyWalton] Yes indeed [TonyWalton] In our case, the evening, which was about Shakespeare's heroes and villains, started with the death scene from ROMEO AND JULIET [TonyWalton] which was bizarrely interrupted by a run-away bicycle wheel. [TonyWalton] crossing the stage in front of the tomb just as Juliet was about to stab herself [TonyWalton] The wheel was soon followed by a trick cyclist [TonyWalton] hurtling after it on his rear wheel alone [TonyWalton] Juliet then had to make believe that nothing out of the ordinary had taken place [TonyWalton] We also had a Hamlet juggling skulls [TonyWalton] and many similarly nutty notions. [TonyWalton] The performers were truly enchanting and some great friendships came out of it [TonyWalton] and have been lovingly maintained. [RobertArmin] Tristan asks: Pippin is one of my fave designs by you, how did you initially approach it to get such a whimsical look? [TonyWalton] Thank you [TonyWalton] I was trying to avoid [TonyWalton] a Camelotty look [TonyWalton] so I took as my point of departure Stephen Schwartz's "Magic to Do" [TonyWalton] And my first designs were all made out of silk handkerchiefs and lengths of rope and [TonyWalton] other standard pieces of magician's equipment [TonyWalton] To start with, I was making structures out of the silk kerchiefs [TonyWalton] and sort of drawing details on them with the gold rope [TonyWalton] and at some point Bob Fosse said "Why don't we try blowing away the handkerchiefs and see what happens if [TonyWalton] we predominately use the rope?" [TonyWalton] Because, ultimately, the story starts with the leading player, which was then Ben Vereen, making a silk kerchief disappear [TonyWalton] then finding it with the help of a follow spot peaking out of a hole in the center stage [TonyWalton] by pulling this rapidly upwards [TonyWalton] he delivered the first of the skeletal settings --Charlemagne's Palace -- [TonyWalton] into position, from underneath the stage [RobertArmin] MD130 writes: Whenever I have been unsure about seeing a particular play, if I know you did the designs, I know I'll at least enjoy the scenery. Has there ever been a play you designed that you haven't been particularly fond of? [TonyWalton] Oh, yes [TonyWalton] And even a musical [TonyWalton] But thanks so much for your very charming comment. [TonyWalton] As you noticed, I'm ducking a specific answer here. [RobertArmin] Very politely indeed. [RobertArmin] Let's chat a bit about the Boy Friend, which you will be designing for the Bay Street Theatre this summer. [TonyWalton] In Sag Harbor [RobertArmin] Obviously, it is hard to mention The Boy Friend without mentioning Julie Andrews. [TonyWalton] "Our Ex" as my wife fondly refers to her. [RobertArmin] Few ex-couples have worked together so fabulously over the years. When did you meet her? [TonyWalton] We met as kids [TonyWalton] When she was appearing as Humpty Dumpty in a Christmas pantomime, I think Mother Goose, [TonyWalton] in London, when she was around eleven and I was 12 [RobertArmin] It sounds a bit like Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence's first meeting. [TonyWalton] It turned out we lived in the same village, Walton-on-Thames [TonyWalton] and met in the railway carriage [TonyWalton] When my brother and I had just been taken to see Julie's pantomime and we all ended up on the same train back to Walton. [RobertArmin] Did you get to work with her before dating her or vice versa? [TonyWalton] No, dating first [TonyWalton] Although we did do a book together in our very early teens [TonyWalton] actually two books about symphony orchestras [TonyWalton] One was called PETER PICCOLO'S GREAT IDEA [TonyWalton] and the other CONCEITED MISTER CONCERTO [TonyWalton] They were published in a newspaper in Blackpool while Julie was involved in some summer vaudeville show there. [RobertArmin] Have they ever been republished? If not, they certainly should... [LOL] [TonyWalton] No, I think, both of us would be shy of that. [RobertArmin] What was your first Broadway design? [TonyWalton] A one-night-stand called ONCE THERE WAS A RUSSIAN [TonyWalton] by Sam Spewack [RobertArmin] The co-author of Kiss Me, Kate. [TonyWalton] it was the first show in which Walter Matthau took a starring role [TonyWalton] It also starred a great French tragedienne, Francoise Rosay [TonyWalton] as Catherine of Russia [RobertArmin] Wasn't that play later adapted into a musical? [TonyWalton] Yes, indeed it was, by Frank Loesser [TonyWalton] who somehow saw the single performance on Broadway [TonyWalton] and came up with a musical version for Bob Fosse to direct [TonyWalton] which ultimately managed zero performances on Broadway [TonyWalton] What was that called??? [TonyWalton] PLEASURES AND PALACES [RobertArmin] Yes. [RobertArmin] Were you involved in that one? [TonyWalton] Nope [TonyWalton] No such luck [RobertArmin] Surely, your next show ran more than one performance. [TonyWalton] Yes, I believe my next Broadway show was A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM [RobertArmin] That was a landmark in many ways -- you later did the movie. [TonyWalton] which, of course, was also Steve Sondheim's Broadway debut as composer-lyricist. [RobertArmin] You were recently honored for that film. [TonyWalton] Not strictly for that film but it was shown at the Hollywood Directors Guild in the course of a very pleasant tribute to me [TonyWalton] by the Hollywood Art Directors [TonyWalton] The stunning Inga Neilsen, [TonyWalton] who had played Gymnasia in the movie, was there for the event [TonyWalton] and it was great to see her again. [TonyWalton] The evening before the event, Tom Walsh and the new president of the Art Directors Guild had thrown a party for my wife and myself [TonyWalton] to which he had invited all the lovely folk who had worked with me over the years and had ended up in LA [TonyWalton] Many of them from the 50s and 60s still managing to look almost exactly as they did back then [RobertArmin] Your film credits have been quite astonishing -- including The Wiz (memorable almost exclusively for your designs), Murder On The Orient Express, All That Jazz for which you won an Oscar, not to mention the movie of The Boy Friend and the legendary Mary Poppins. [RobertArmin] Fabulous output. [TonyWalton] Thank you [RobertArmin] MD130 asks: What projects do you have in the works besides the exciting The Boy Friend at Bay Street? [TonyWalton] Another Bay Street production earlier this summer [TonyWalton] featuring Ben Gazzara as Yogi Berra [TonyWalton] and I'm in the midst of designing [TonyWalton] a blues ballet of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s Saint Louis Woman [TonyWalton] for the Dance Theatre of Harlem which [TonyWalton] will premiere at the State Theatre at Lincoln Center early in July [TonyWalton] They are a stunning company and I am hugely enjoying working on this [TonyWalton] Arthur Mitchell has brought in Michael Smuin to choreograph and Willa Kim is doing the costumes [TonyWalton] And, the lighting will be by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer [RobertArmin] One of your early films -- Fahrenheit 451 -- had a stunning design. How much of the sets were manufactured and how much utilized existing buildings? [RobertArmin] For the futuristic look [TonyWalton] Very high proportion of it was manufactured or used Shepperton Studios' sound stages as if they were fire stations [TonyWalton] because Truffaut was embroiled in his book on Hitchcock [TonyWalton] and wanted to know what it was like to work in an artificial studio-oriented way, as opposed to his own naturalistic approach [TonyWalton] using preexisting locations [RobertArmin] A question from DoriaHudson: You've won so many awards, and created sets and costumes for a plethora of shows and movies... is there anything you haven't accomplished, that you'd still like to? [TonyWalton] I’ve recently been dipping into direction more and more [RobertArmin] Ah hah. [TonyWalton] I suppose I've done six or seven fully realized productions in the last few years [TonyWalton] some of which I also designed [TonyWalton] but some on which I've had the incredible pleasure of working simply as a Director with other Designers [TonyWalton] doing the sets and costumes [TonyWalton] It's just great to be able to think about design without actually having to do any of the boundless follow-thru [TonyWalton] And I have a few directing projects in the pipeline [TonyWalton] And that's something I look forward to a lot. [RobertArmin] MD130 asks: How does Julie Andrews feel about her new role as a director? Will you be advising her in this new role? [TonyWalton] I hope I'll be as supportive as may be appropriate. [TonyWalton] Her initial ideas about the design [TonyWalton] are quite terrific and not necessarily something that would have occurred to me [TonyWalton] So, the collaboration to date, has been joyous! [RobertArmin] Your designs for the movie version of The Boy Friend were about as diverse as can be imagined [RobertArmin] Both a small theatre company and a Busby Berkeley extravaganza... [TonyWalton] Well [TonyWalton] It was based on Ken Russell’s idea of a ratty seaside theatre company putting on the show [TonyWalton] only to discover at their sparsely attended matinee [TonyWalton] that a famous Hollywood Producer/Director was watching the performance [TonyWalton] with a view to possibly making his own movie version [TonyWalton] so many of the individuals in the company had good reason to imagine hugely improved versions of the musical numbers [TonyWalton] and of course the Hollywood Director himself would have fantasies of what his own elaborate treatment might be [TonyWalton] So there were many different levels of fantasy of many different folk. [RobertArmin] Are Julie's ideas for the new stage production "traditional" or "modern?" [TonyWalton] Both traditional and fresh [TonyWalton] Certainly, nothing as lunatically demented as Ken Russell's take on it. [RobertArmin] MD writes: I very much enjoy reading your children's books, "The Dumpy," series that you collaborate on with your daughter and Julie Andrews. What new Dumpy books can we look forward to? [TonyWalton] I think I just delivered the illustrations for number Eight in the Dumpy series [TonyWalton] which is an I-Can-Read-Book called "Dumpy To The Rescue" [TonyWalton] But the next full length one [TonyWalton] will be coming out in August, I think [TonyWalton] and is called "Dumpy And The Fire Fighters" [TonyWalton] and is being published by Harper Collins instead of Hyperion who did the first six [RobertArmin] There has been a recent book featuring the designs of Boris Aronson. Have you any plans for a similar collection of your designs? [RobertArmin] Actually, I did want to ask, why the change in publishers? [TonyWalton] Well, Julie was offered her own imprint at Harper Collins, so that she can help develop and publish books that she believes in by people other than the immediate family [TonyWalton] I think she will be publishing about six books a year, perhaps more under the Harper Collins/Julie Andrews umbrella [RobertArmin] I still have a copy of Mandy, which I purchased decades ago. She fits well in the literary world. [TonyWalton] She's very comfortable there. [TonyWalton] In answer to your earlier question about a book in the Boris Aronson's vein, [TonyWalton] I'm already about two years late in delivering a pair of books [TonyWalton] on my work and my lunatic life [TonyWalton] they are to be published in a piggy-back way by Applause Books [TonyWalton] and they each have the same title, although spelled differently [TonyWalton] the book principally about design [TonyWalton] is to be called SCENE CHANGES [TonyWalton] while the blitheringly anecdotage book is to be called SEEN CHANGES [RobertArmin] Your artwork has adorned many, many movie and theatre posters over the years -- you do GREAT logos... [RobertArmin] But one of my favorites was the design for Katz, the animated character in Woman of the Year [RobertArmin] Several years ago you contributed a copy of the artwork to an auction for the George Abbott Awards [RobertArmin] I got the bidding up to $300, but the woman bidding opposite me had much deeper pockets! [RobertArmin] For me, $300 was like buying a Picasso... but I tried. [TonyWalton] I'm hugely flattered [TonyWalton] and will see if I can pull out another Katzian relic [RobertArmin] Wow! [RobertArmin] In reference to an earlier subject, MD130 writes: Was Dumpy and the Fire Fighters inspired by the events of 9/11? [TonyWalton] I don't believe so [TonyWalton] I think it's origins stemmed from my grandson, Sam's passion for all things related to the local Fire Department in Sag Harbor [TonyWalton] but, of course, [TonyWalton] the publishers may well have encouraged the timeliness of this story line [RobertArmin] Once again, time has flown by. Any last thoughts or comments? [TonyWalton] That's a tough one [TonyWalton] I suppose what pops into my head [TonyWalton] is how splendid it is that you are doing these chat sessions with people as peculiar as myself. [RobertArmin] Hey, you're a star in my book! [RobertArmin] Actually, I met Kristine because of our mutual interest in Gertrude Lawrence, Julie Andrews, the movie Star! and your work. [TonyWalton] Good Lord, thank you kindly [TonyWalton] Oddly enough, my very first off-Broadway production [TonyWalton] and Johnny Kander's first, too [TonyWalton] as musical director [TonyWalton] was for Noel Coward [TonyWalton] It was a revival of his Regency musical [TonyWalton] Conversation Piece [TonyWalton] which features his glorious song, "I'll Follow My Secret Heart" [TonyWalton] Arthur Miller's sister, Joan Copeland, starred as Melanie [TonyWalton] and her brother used to bring his brand new date Marilyn somebody or other, to rehearsals [TonyWalton] so there I was at 21 or 22 [TonyWalton] and gawking at Noel Coward, Marilyn and Arthur Miller in my theatrical introduction to New York [TonyWalton] A pretty tough act to follow. [RobertArmin] And, we should get a plug in here, I suppose, for the Fynsworth Alley recording of IF LOVE WERE ALL, the Noel Coward/Gertrude Lawrence musical for which you did the designs. [TonyWalton] And also Fynsworth Alley's Twiggy album LONDON PRIDE [RobertArmin] For which you did the cover! [RobertArmin] A lovely album. [TonyWalton] I guess I'm ready to do almost anything for the Twiglet [RobertArmin] I can understand that. You must put me in touch with her for a future chat. [TonyWalton] What a good idea. [RobertArmin] Thank you so much for joining me tonight. I really have admired your work for more than forty years! [TonyWalton] Thank you, too, It's been great fun gibbering away with you. [TonyWalton] in this curious new manner [RobertArmin] Thank you all for joining me again tonight. Next week, my guest is the extraordinary singer, Maureen McGovern. [RobertArmin] Good night, Tony, [TonyWalton] Goodnight, Roberto.
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