Ken Billington

Ken Billington (born October 29, 1946) is an American lighting designer. He began his career in New York City working as an assistant to Tharon Musser.[1]

He was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Kenneth Arthur (an automobile dealer) and Ruth (Roane) Billington.

Billington has 96 Broadway productions to his credit including Copperfield, Checking Out, Moon Over Buffalo, Grind, Hello Dolly!, Meet Me in St. Louis, On the Twentieth Century, Side by Side by Sondheim, Lettice and Lovage, Tru, The Scottsboro Boys, and Sweeney Todd.

Off-Broadway productions include Sylvia, London Suite, Annie Warbucks, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, The Lisbon Traviata, What the Butler Saw, and Fortune and Men's Eyes.

Billington was the principal lighting designer for Radio City Music Hall from 1979 - 2004, where he created the lighting for the world-famous Christmas and Easter Spectaculars.[1] While there, he also created the lighting for the stage adaptation of the 1937 animated musical film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Other projects include lighting the 1975/76 season for the American Shakespeare Festival at Stratford, Connecticut as well as projects such as Turandot at the Vienna State Opera, to nightclub acts for headliners Ann-Margret, Shirley MacLaine, and Liberace.

At Disneyland, Billington's lighting is featured in the extravaganza Fantasmic. His architectural designs can be seen in restaurants and clubs from Manhattan to Asia. Ken also designed the lighting plot and original design for all four current Dolly Parton Dixie Stampede locations.

Billington has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design nine times and in 1997 won for the revival of Chicago, which also garnered him the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design.

In November 2015, Billington was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.[2]

Awards and nominations
Year Title Award Category Result
1974 The Visit Tony Award Best Lighting Design Nominated
1978 Working Tony Award Best Lighting Design Nominated
1979 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Tony Award Best Lighting Design Nominated
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design Nominated
1983 Foxfire Tony Award Best Lighting Design Nominated
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design Nominated
1984 End of the World Tony Award Best Lighting Design Nominated
1985 Grind Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design Nominated
1997 Chicago Tony Award Best Lighting Design Won
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design Won
Outer Critics Circle Award Best Lighting Design Nominated
2006 The Drowsy Chaperone Tony Award Best Lighting Design Nominated
2008 Sunday in the Park with George Tony Award Best Lighting Design Nominated
Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design Nominated
Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Lighting Design Won
2010 Sondheim on Sondheim Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Lighting Design Nominated
2011 The Scottsboro Boys Tony Award Best Lighting Design Nominated
2013 Chaplin Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lighting Design Nominated
Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Lighting Design Nominated

References
  1. Rothstein, Mervyn "A Life in the Theatre: Ken Billington", playbill.com, December 25, 2008
  2. Theater Hall of Fame Members List, November 23, 2015

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