Ken Billington is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 lighting designer

Lighting designer

The role of the lighting designer within theatre is to work with the director, choreographer, set designer, costume designer, and sound designer to create an overall 'look' for the show in response to the text, while keeping in mind issues of visibility, safety and cost...

. He began his career in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 working as an assistant to Tharon Musser

Tharon Musser

Tharon Musser was an American lighting designer who worked on more than 150 Broadway productions. She was termed the "Dean of American Lighting Designers" and is considered one of the pioneers in her field....

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He was born in White Plains

White Plains, New York

White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...

, New York, the son of Kenneth Arthur (an automobile dealer) and Ruth (Roane) Billington.

Billington has over 70 Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 productions to his credit including Copperfield

Copperfield (musical)

Copperfield is a 1981 musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, who were nominated for the 1981 Tony Award for Best Original Score. It is based on the classic 1850 novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens....

, Checking Out

Checking Out (play)

Checking Out is a 1976 Broadway play written by Allen Swift. It opened on September 14, 1976 at the Longacre Theatre and closed on September 25, 1976 after 16 performances.-Original Production:...

, Moon Over Buffalo

Moon Over Buffalo

Moon Over Buffalo is a 1995 comic play by Ken Ludwig set in Buffalo, New York in 1953. This play marked the return of Carol Burnett to the Broadway stage, after 30 years.- Characters :*George Hay, a traveling actor....

, Grind

Grind (musical)

Grind is a musical with a book by Fay Kanin, music by Larry Grossman, and lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh. Grind is a portrait of a largely African-American burlesque house in Chicago in the Thirties.The reviews were mixed at best...

, Hello Dolly!, Meet Me in St. Louis

Meet Me in St. Louis (musical)

Meet Me in St. Louis is a musical based on the 1944 film of the same title, about a family living in St. Louis, Missouri on the eve of the 1904 World's Fair....

, On the Twentieth Century

On the Twentieth Century

On the Twentieth Century is a musical with book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Cy Coleman. Part operetta, part farce, part screwball comedy, the story involves the behind-the-scenes relationship of a temperamental actress and a director.-Background:Comden and Green based...

, Side by Side by Sondheim

Side By Side By Sondheim

Side by Side by Sondheim is a musical revue featuring the songs of Broadway and film composer Stephen Sondheim. Its title is derived from the song "Side by Side by Side" from Company.-History:...

, Lettice and Lovage

Lettice and Lovage

Lettice and Lovage is a comedic play by Peter Shaffer, author of Equus and Amadeus. The play was written specifically for Dame Maggie Smith, who originated the title role of Lettice Douffet in both the English and American runs of the production. The role of Lotte Schoen was played by Margaret...

, Tru

Tru (play)

Tru is a play by Jay Presson Allen.Adapted from the words and works of Truman Capote, it is set in the writer's New York City apartment at 870 United Nations Plaza the week before Christmas 1975...

, The Scottsboro Boys

The Scottsboro Boys (musical)

The Scottsboro Boys is a musical with a book by David Thompson, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. Based on the Scottsboro Boys trial, the musical is one of the last collaborations between Kander and Ebb prior to the latter's death...

, and Sweeney Todd.

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 productions include Sylvia

Sylvia (play)

Sylvia is a play about a dog, the couple who adopts her,and the drama that results. It was written by A. R. Gurney and first produced in 1995....

, London Suite

London Suite

London Suite is a play by Neil Simon, later made into a 1996 Made-for-TV movie. It is in a similar style to Simon's earlier works: Plaza Suite and California Suite....

, Annie Warbucks

Annie Warbucks

Annie Warbucks is a musical with a book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse, and lyrics by Martin Charnin. A sequel to the 1977 Tony Award-winning hit Annie, based on Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie comic strip, it begins immediately after Annie ended.-Plot:On Christmas morning in 1933,...

, Lips Together, Teeth Apart

Lips Together, Teeth Apart

Lips Together, Teeth Apart is a 1991 play by American playwright Terrence McNally.-Plot:A gay community in Fire Island provides an unlikely setting for two straight couples spending the Fourth of July weekend in a house inherited by Sally from her brother who died of AIDS. Through monologues...

, The Lisbon Traviata

The Lisbon Traviata

The Lisbon Traviata is a 1989 play by Terrence McNally.It focuses on two of the playwright's favorite subjects, gay relationships and Maria Callas, and includes one of his most memorable characters, flamboyantly bitchy and viciously wicked opera queen Mendy...

, What the Butler Saw

What the Butler Saw (play)

What the Butler Saw is a farce written by English playwright Joe Orton. It premièred at the Queen's Theatre in London on 5 March 1969. It was Orton's final play and the second to be performed after his death, following Funeral Games the year before....

, and Fortune and Men's Eyes

Fortune and Men's Eyes

Fortune and Men's Eyes is a 1967 play and 1971 film by John Herbert about a young man's experience in prison, exploring themes of homosexuality and sexual slavery. The title comes from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 which begins with the line "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes". It has...

.

Billington was the principal lighting designer for Radio City Music Hall

Radio City Music Hall

Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...

 from 1979 - 2004, where he created the lighting for the world-famous Christmas and Easter Spectaculars. While there, he also created the lighting for the stage adaption

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (musical)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a musical with music by Frank Churchill and Jay Blackton, lyrics by Larry Morey and Joe Cook, book by Joe Cook, based on the 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs....

 of the 1937 animated musical film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...

. Other projects include lighting the 1975/76 season for the American Shakespeare Festival at Stratford, Connecticut

Stratford, Connecticut

Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....

 as well as projects such as Turandot

Turandot

Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...

at the Vienna State Opera

Vienna State Opera

The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...

, to nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 acts for headliners Ann-Margret

Ann-Margret

Ann-Margret Olsson is a Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer whose professional name is Ann-Margret. She became famous for her starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, The Cincinnati Kid, Carnal Knowledge, and Tommy...

, Shirley MacLaine

Shirley MacLaine

Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...

, and Liberace

Liberace

Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...

.

At Disneyland, Billington's lighting is featured in the extravaganza Fantasmic. His architectural designs can be seen in restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

s and clubs from Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 to Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

. Ken also designed the lighting plot and original design for all four current Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton

Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...

 Dixie Stampede locations.

Billington has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design

Tony Award for Best Lighting Design

This is a list of the winners of the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a play or musical, first presented in 1970. In 2005 the category was divided with each genre represented separately.-1970s:* 1970: Jo Mielziner – Child's Play...

 eight times and in 1997 won for the revival of Chicago

Chicago (musical)

Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...

, which also garnered him the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors...

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External links

• Ken Billington at the Internet Broadway database
• Biography American Theatre Wing
• The Lighting Archive complete lighting paperwork for Sweeney Todd
  Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
  Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1936 British film produced and directed by George King.-Plot:The film features Tod Slaughter in one of his most famous roles as barber Sweeney Todd. Sweeney Todd was wrongly sentenced to life in prison. After his release 15 years later, he begins...