Howard Bay; Dean of Stage Designers

Howard Bay, called by many the dean of stage designers and whose 170 Broadway productions brought him Tony Awards for “Man of La Mancha” and “Toys in the Attic,” has died at age 74.

Bay, who also created sets for movies and television and taught set design at Brandeis University, died of a heart attack Nov. 21 at his Manhattan home. He was working on designs for a production of “The Music Man,” which was to be presented next month at the Peking Opera House in China.

He received his first Tony for the drama “Toys in the Attic” in 1960 and his second one six years later for the musical “Man of La Mancha.” His designs for “Carmen Jones” and “Up in Central Park” also won awards.

Bay began his Broadway career in 1933 with “There’s a Moon Tonight” and continued with such productions as “One-Third of a Nation,” “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “The Little Foxes” and “The Moon Is Down.” By the time he was 36 he had designed sets for more than 50 Broadway shows.

His other productions included “Finian’s Rainbow,” “Look Back in Anger,” “One Touch of Venus” and “Come Back, Little Sheba.”

Bay, who is survived by a son and daughter, sought to avoid being identified with a particular style, telling an interviewer several years ago, “Playwrights don’t write in the same style--why should designers work in the same style?”