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 2007, 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	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

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.

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

External links

• Kenneth Posner at the Internet Broadway Database