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).

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, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Wicked, Hairspray, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 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, 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 – 1995The Father – 1996Getting Away With Murder – 1996The Rehearsal – 1996The Last Night of Ballyhoo – 1997The Little Foxes – 1997A View From the Bridge – 1997Side Man – 1998Little Me – 1998You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown – 1999The Lion in Winter – 1999Swing! – 1999Uncle Vanya – 2000The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – 2001The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? – 2002The Smell of the Kill – 2002The Man Who Had All the Luck – 2002Hairspray – 2002Imaginary Friends – 2002Wicked – 2003Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All – 2003 The Frogs – 2004Little Women – 2005Dirty Rotten Scoundrels – 2005Glengarry Glen Ross – 2005The Odd Couple – 2005Lestat – 2005The Coast of Utopia (Part 2 - Shipwreck) – 2006The Pirate Queen – 2007Legally Blonde – 2007Grease – 2007The Homecoming – 20079 to 5 – 2009The Royal Family – 2009The Miracle Worker – 2010Lend Me a Tenor – 2010Mrs. Warren's Profession – 2010A Life in the Theatre – 2010The Merchant of Venice – 2010Elling – 2010Catch Me if You Can – 2010Relatively Speaking – 2011Other Desert Cities – 2011Gore Vidal's The Best Man – 2012The Columnist – 2012Harvey – 2012Rogers + Hammerstein's Cinderella – 2013Kinky Boots – 2013Pippin – 2013If/Then – 2014Disgraced – 2014Finding Neverland – 2015On Your Feet! – 2015Tuck Everlasting – 2016War Paint – 2017

Touring

Swing! Hairspray Wicked Tours

West End

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

Off-Broadway