Kenneth Posner

Kenneth Posner is an American lighting designer, working on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in American regional theatre. His most notable designs include the musicals Wicked and Hairspray, two highly regarded musicals of the early 21st century. In 2011, he won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Play for his work on The Coast of Utopia (Part 2 - Shipwreck).

Kenneth Posner
Education	Eastchester High School
Alma mater	SUNY Purchase Boston University College of Fine Arts
Occupation	Lighting designer
Years active	1988-present
Known for	Wicked Hairspray
Awards	Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Play

Career and education

He has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design 11 times and won once for The Coast of Utopia (Part 2 - Shipwreck) in 2011. His nominations have included nods for Merchant of Venice (2011), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005), Wicked (2004), Hairspray (2003), and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2001). He has also been nominated 10 times for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design and received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting in 2003. In 2013, Posner achieved a near-sweep of the nominations for the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical, garnering nods in three of the four eligible slots (for Kinky Boots, Pippin, and Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella), though he lost to Matilda The Musical.

Posner was educated at SUNY Purchase, where Brian MacDevitt also attended. He is a 1983 graduate of Eastchester High School in Eastchester, New York. He also attended Boston University College of Fine Arts.

Personal life

He is currently a resident of Verona, New Jersey.[1]

Productions

Broadway

The Rose Tattoo – 1995 The Father – 1996 Getting Away With Murder – 1996 The Rehearsal – 1996 The Last Night of Ballyhoo – 1997 The Little Foxes – 1997 A View From the Bridge – 1997 Side Man – 1998 Little Me – 1998 You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown – 1999 The Lion in Winter – 1999 Swing! – 1999 Uncle Vanya – 2000 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – 2001 The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? – 2002 The Smell of the Kill – 2002 The Man Who Had All the Luck – 2002 Hairspray – 2002 Imaginary Friends – 2002 Wicked – 2003 Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All – 2003 The Frogs – 2004 Little Women – 2005 Dirty Rotten Scoundrels – 2005

Glengarry Glen Ross – 2005 The Odd Couple – 2005 Lestat – 2005 The Coast of Utopia (Part 2 - Shipwreck) – 2006 The Pirate Queen – 2007 Legally Blonde – 2007 Grease – 2007 The Homecoming – 2007 9 to 5 – 2009 The Royal Family – 2009 The Miracle Worker – 2010 Lend Me a Tenor – 2010 Mrs. Warren's Profession – 2010 A Life in the Theatre – 2010 The Merchant of Venice – 2010 Elling – 2010 Catch Me if You Can – 2010 Relatively Speaking – 2011 Other Desert Cities – 2011 Gore Vidal's The Best Man – 2012 The Columnist – 2012 Harvey – 2012 Rogers + Hammerstein's Cinderella – 2013 Kinky Boots – 2013

Pippin – 2013 If/Then – 2014 Disgraced – 2014 Finding Neverland – 2015 On Your Feet! – 2015 Tuck Everlasting – 2016 War Paint – 2017 John Lithgow: Stories by Heart – 2018 Mean Girls – 2018 Pretty Woman: The Musical – 2018 Beetlejuice – 2019 Take Me Out – 2021

Touring

• Swing! (2000-2001)
• Hairspray (2003-2006)
• Wicked Tours
  • Emerald City Tour (2005-2015)
  • Chicago Tour (2005-2009)
  • Los Angeles Tour (2007-2009)
  • San Francisco Tour (2009-2010)
  • Munchkinland Tour (2009-present)
• Little Women (2005-2006)
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2006-2007)
• Grease (2008-2010)
• Kinky Boots (2014-2017)
• Pippin (2014-2016)
• Rogers + Hammerstein's Cinderella (2014-2016)
• If/Then (2015-2016)
• Finding Neverland (2016-2018)
• On Your Feet! (2017-2019)
• Mean Girls (2019-present)
• Pretty Woman: The Musical (upcoming)

West End

• Hairspray – 2007
• Legally Blonde – 2010
• Kinky Boots – 2015
• On Your Feet! – 2019
• Wicked – 2021
• Pretty Woman: The Musical – 2021

Off-Broadway

Emerald City – 1988 Come As You Are – 1990 Machinal – 1990 Walking the Dead – 1991 Ruthless! – 1992 Spike Heels – 1992 Flaubert's Latest – 1992 The Madame MacAdam Traveling Theatre – 1992 On the Bum – 1992 On the Open Road – 1993 Sophistry – 1993 Time on Fire – 1993 Marisol (play) – 1993 Johnny Pye and the Fool-Killer – 1993 The Swan – 1994 Suburbia – 1994 A Cheever Evening – 1994 The Scarlett Letter – 1994 The Rose Tattoo – 1995 The Radical Mystique – 1995 Endgame – 1995 Wake Up, I'm Fat– 1995 "Cowgirls – 1996 The Blues Are Running – 1996 Nine Armenians – 1996

Dealer's Choice – 1997 Collected Stories – 1997 As Bees In Honey Drown – 1997 Misalliance – 1997 Pride's Crossing – 1997 Side Man – 1998 Labor Day – 1998 2.5 Minute Ride – 1999 That Championship Season – 1999 The Author's Voice & Imagining Brad – 1999 Give Me Your Answer, Do! – 1999 The Play About the Baby – 2000 The Wild Party – 2000 The Altruists – 2000 The Waverly Gallery – 2000 The Winter's Tale – 2000 The Credeaux Canvas – 2001 Tick, Tick... Boom! – 2001 Music from a Sparkling Planet – 2001 Hobson's Choice – 2002 Monster – 2002 F-ing A – 2003 A Little Night Music – 2003 Valhalla – 2004 Can-Can – 2004

Entertaining Mr. Sloane – 2006 Satellites – 2006 Parlour Song – 2008 The New Century – 2008 Good Boys and True – 2008 The Savannah Disputation – 2008 The Toxic Avenger – 2009 Our House – 2009 The Understudy – 2009 Mr. and Mrs. Fitch – 2010 Me, Myself & I – 2010 Other Desert Cities – 2011 Death Takes a Holiday – 2011 If I Forget – 2017 A Parallelogram – 2017 Amy and the Orphans – 2018 Long Lost – 2019 The Perplexed – 2020

Awards and nominations

Tony Awards

Year	Category	Work	Result
2001	Best Lighting Design	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	Nominated
2003		Hairspray	Nominated
2004		Wicked	Nominated
2005	Best Lighting Design in a Musical	Dirty Rotten Scoundrels	Nominated
2007	Best Lighting Design in a Play	The Coast Of Utopia (Part 2 - Shipwreck)	Won
2011		The Merchant of Venice	Nominated
2012		Other Desert Cities	Nominated
2013	Best Lighting Design in a Musical	Kinky Boots	Nominated
		Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella	Nominated
		Pippin	Nominated
2019		Beetlejuice	Nominated

Drama Desk Awards

Year	Category	Work	Result
1991	Outstanding Lighting Design	Machinal	Nominated
1998		Pride's Crossing	Nominated
		A View From the Bridge	Nominated
2000		The Wild Party	Nominated
2001		The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	Nominated
2002		Monster	Nominated
2004		Wicked	Nominated
2007		The Coast Of Utopia (Part 2 - Shipwreck)	Won
2009		9 to 5	Nominated
2012		Death Takes a Holiday	Nominated
2013		Pippin	Nominated

Obie Award

Year	Category	Work	Result
2003	Sustained Excellence in Lighting		Won

References

1. KENNETH POSNER Archived 2008-03-06 at the Wayback Machine, Playbill. Accessed January 11, 2008. "He resides in Verona, New Jersey, with his wife Michelle and their three children."

External links

• Kenneth Posner at the Internet Broadway Database