Kary M. Walker, a pivotal figure in the commercial theater business outside of New York City and for years the executive producer of the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, died at 79 from leukemia at his home in Moraira, Spain, on Wednesday. The death was announced by his friend, longtime professional partner and, later, his successor at the Marriott, Terry James.
Prior to his retirement in 2000 after 21 years at the Marriott in northwest suburban Chicago, Walker was the driving force that created an annual subscription base of some 35,000 subscribers at the resort hotel with (unusually) a 838-seat, in-the-round theater running 52 weeks a year, making it the home of one of the biggest multi-ticket audiences in the country.
Walker brought to his loyal and massive suburban audience such world premieres as “Annie Warbucks” (a sequel to “Annie”), “Matador,” “Peggy Sue Got Married” and “Phantom of the Country Palace” and also produced a countless array of revivals of classic and contemporary musical titles, many of them featuring such big-name Chicago actors as John Reeger, Paula Scrofano, Brian d’Arcy James, Kevin Earley, Alene Robertson, Kurt Johns, Bernie Yvon, Larry Yando, Susan Moniz and Felicia P. Fields.
Born in Conroe, Texas, in Dec. 1944 and an armed forces veteran who served in Vietnam, Walker became one of the Chicago theater’s great loquacious characters, a no-nonsense producer who generally said exactly what he thought and never shied away from calling up critics to question their intelligence, taste or both. Making a surprise appearance at Walker’s retirement party some 24 years ago, former Tribune critic Richard Christiansen read some of Walker’s most lacerating voicemails out loud, the ones, he said, that had not combusted spontaneously.
“Theater was Kary’s passion. Marriott was his passion. And Chicago’s actors were his passion,” James said. “He was fiercely loyal and was proudly protective. Thousands of artists and millions of audience members are his legacy, along with all those new musicals that kept the art form going.”
Walker was a founding member of the National Association of Musical Theatres. After leaving Marriott, he also worked for several years with NETworks, a longtime producer of touring Broadway productions. But the bulk of his career was centered on Marriott, which the late entrepreneur Tony DeSantis had opened just a few years earlier as a venue for star performers. Once put in charge, Walker decided musicals were the way to go and history proved him right.
“He was one of Chicago theater’s true visionaries and turned what was a suburban dinner theater into a major player on the world’s stage when it came to musical theater,” said Michael Weber, artistic director of the Porchlight Music Theatre in Chicago.
Survivors include husband Jimmy Morvay and brother, Kyle Walker. There is to be a memorial in the coming days in Spain; James said a second celebration of Kary Walker’s life is likely to follow in the Chicago area.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com