Kenneth Posner

Kenneth Posner
Kenneth Posner
Education	Boston University; State University of New York, Purchase (BFA)
Occupation	Lighting designer
Years active	1988-present
Known for	Wicked; Hairspray
Awards	Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Play

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 2007, he won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Play for his work on The Coast of Utopia (Part 2 - Shipwreck).

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 and was born in 1966.^[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
1998		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

^ 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

[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."

[1]