In 1973 I was asked to design the lighting for a play that Harold Prince was directing. This then led me to designing 21 productions for Hal. Here is how that started.

I had been an assistant to the great Lighting Designer Tharon Musser when I was first starting out. After several years assisting it was time to strike out on my own. Tharon had recommended me to light the New Phoenix Repertory Company’s slate of workshops to be presented off Broadway. The New Phoenix Repertory Company was a re-imagining of various incarnations of the Phoenix Rep. T. Edward Hambleton and Michael Montel put together two artistic directors for this new company: Harold Prince and Stephen Porter in their first season (1972). They presented two plays on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre. During the winter they presented four workshops Off-Broadway, what we would now call Off Off Broadway, a term that did not yet exist in 1973; the Phoenix Rep called them “Sideshows”. The plays, Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy’s A Meeting by the River, Richard Wesley’s Strike Heaven on the Face, James Saunders’ Games and After Liverpool and Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector were successful, all opening between December 18, 1972 and January 28, 1973.

The coming fall season it would be time for the second Broadway season for the New Phoenix Rep. Tharon was not available for the extended amount of time so she recommended me to light the three shows in repertory. The first show was Durrenmatt’s The Visit directed by Harold Prince. Tharon said, “You liked Ken’s work for you last season on the Sideshow series so give him a chance this season”, so without even an interview with the three directors of the plays I was hired.

BROADWAY

The Visit – Barrymore Theatre – November 25, 1973

Author: Friedrich Durrenmatt
Directed by Harold Prince
Scenery by Edward Burbridge
Costumes by Carolyn Parker
Lighting by Ken Billington

The Visit was the first show I designed for Hal. It was part of a three-play rotating repertory season on Broadway. The other plays were the Feydeau farce Chemin De Fer and Philip Barry’s Holiday. My previous Broadway design credit was supervising the lighting for the musical Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope. The Visit was my first Broadway solo design credit and I received a Tony nomination for my work.

My first meeting with Hal was at his home office. It was a production meeting with the design team, stage manager, Hal, and his associate Ruth Mitchell. Schedule was discussed, scenery and sound cues were talked about and costume sketches looked at. Nobody mentioned lighting, after the meeting I went up to Hal and said, “We did not talk about the lighting.” Hal replied, “What do you want to talk about?”, to which I said, there are two ways to approach this — one is with pools and shafts of light; before I could finish my sentence Hal said I love shafts of light do it that way. This set a pattern for the shows to follow a simple directive and he let me go for it.

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Love For Love – Helen Hayes Theatre – November 11, 1974

Author: William Congreve
Songs by: Hugh Wheeler and Paul Gemignani
Directed by Harold Prince
Scenery by Douglas Higgins
Costumes by Franne Lee
Lighting by Ken Billington

This was the third and final season for the New Phoenix Rep with 3 plays in rotating repertory the other plays were Pirandello’s “Rules of the Game” and Carson McCullers “The Member of the Wedding”.  As with the previous season we went out of town to Philadelphia at the Annenburg Center and then came into the Helen Hayes Theatre (now demolished).

While we were out of town the leading lady Mary Ure, a very accomplished British actress was having a hard time with memorizing the lines of this 3 act restoration comedy.  When we got into New York she was still struggling and after 4 previews Hal decided that he needed to replace her.  After matinee before the press opening, in those days all the critics came to the same performance, Hal went to Mary and told her this was not going to work out.  Immediately the understudy was summoned, a young actress in the ensemble.  Opening night went forward with Glenn Close (who had gotten her equity card 7 weeks earlier) playing the lead with a minimum of rehearsal.  She knew all the lines.

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Side by Side by Sondheim – Music Box Theatre – April 17, 1977

‘Continuity and Direction by Ned Sherrin
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Produced by Harold Prince
Scenery by Peter Docherty
Costumes by Florence Klotz
Lighting by Ken Billington
Sound Design by Jack Mann

Side by Side by Sondheim had been a hit in London and was transferred to New York by Hal Prince. The changes were in the design team — Florence Klotz to do the costumes and me to do the lighting. An interesting note is that computer control of lighting on Broadway had been confined to A Chorus Line when it opened on Broadway in 1975. Tharon Musser, the lighting designer of A Chorus Line, had the first lighting computer built and installed into the Shubert Theatre. Broadway was not eager to spend the money for this expensive piece of equipment plus the lighting rental shops did not have anything of this nature in their inventory. I decided to use a new Century Strand Multi Cue console on Side by Side by Sondheim. The rental shop would not purchase it so I went to Hal and said he should buy this. He did, within the next two years the lighting on all Broadway shows was controlled by a lighting computer.

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Some of My Best Friends – Longacre Theatre – October 25, 1977

Author: Stanley Hart
Directed by Harold Prince
Scenery by Eugene Lee
Costumes by Franne Lee
Lighting by Ken Billington

Some of My Best Friends was an original play written by Stanley Hart, who was one of the creators of Mad Magazine, his magazine byline was Stan Hart.  Arthur Whitelaw, a friend, was the producer of the show and he showed me a copy of the script in late 1976.  It was a wacky play about a man who has a nervous breakdown and after shock treatment in a sanatorium can talk to animals and trees.  Arthur had several well known directors turn him down due to schedule conflicts.  Arthur did not know who to go to next and I suggested Hal Prince, who could I thought tell this story in an off-center way.  Hal loved the script and signed on. Also the show starred Ted Knight who was at the time one of TV’s biggest sit com stars The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  Eugene Lee did the scenery and Franne Lee the costumes and Saul Bass was hired to do the graphics for the poster.  

We tried out in Philadelphia at the Walnut Street Theatre and nobody came.  You would walk out on the street after the show and there were lots of people to see Ted Knight, he could not walk to the hotel or go to a restaurant because he was mobbed.  Those folks did not purchase theatre tickets.  We moved into the Longacre Theatre in New York opening on October 25, 1977 and closing five days later.

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On The Twentieth Century – St. James Theatre   – February 15, 1978

Music by Cy Coleman
Book Lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Directed by Harold Prince
Musical Staging by Larry Fuller
Scenery/Sound by Robin Wagner
Costumes by Florence Klotz
Lighting by Ken Billington

On the 20th Century was my first big Broadway musical that I would be designing.  Yes, it was my 21st Broadway show as Lighting Designer and I had done the Zero Mostel revival of Fiddler on the Roof in 1976 with Jerome Robbins and Boris Aronson in the theatre. With book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolf Green score by Cy Coleman, direction Hal Prince, Choreography by Larry Fuller and as designers Robin Wagner and Florence Klotz I had made it to the big time.

In the Spring of 1977 I went to Hal’s office for a reading of the show.  Hal read all the parts and Comden and Green sang all the songs while Cy played the piano.  This was a small event with only about 10 people in the room.  When we finished, we went through the scenic model with Hal, Robin Wagner (Scenic Designer) and Ruth Mitchell (Hal’s Associate).  The show was breathtakingly beautiful, which did win Robin the Tony Award that season. As I sat in that meeting watching all the scenic transitions, I realized there was not enough room for the lighting equipment.  I probably should have spoken up right then, but I was the kid and I was working with the A team so I figured they knew better than me.  The meeting was over and we would not meet again until the fall. 

As I was drawing the lighting plot I realized there really was not enough room for lighting equipment.  I did get Robin to open some space for the 1st Electric pipe behind the show curtain, I needed 17 ½ inches for a scenic projector so Robin gave me 19 inches.  There was minimal space in the 2nd wing where there was 12 inches, not enough to hang a spotlight that needed 18 inches.  Again, I did not speak up.  When we get to Boston’s Colonial Theatre for the tryout I was in trouble.  Without enough equipment in this area it was dark  6 feet to 15 feet upstage of the footlights. Compounding my problem that electric pipe was not allowing the flying scenery to pass without colliding with the lights.  At a morning work call the head carpenter, Peter Feller came up to Robin and I and said follow me.  We both went onstage, and he pointed to my meager lighting pipe and said “something needs to go” pointing to the lights and the apartment set.  There was a major scene in the Oscar Jaffee apartment, so that set was not going to be eliminated. I was concerned that if the lights were cut I would be asked to leave.

Just then George Martin the stage manager comes up and tells us the apartment scene has been cut.  Saved, and with the new space a new electric with all the lights I needed.  The lesson on that show was to speak up if you see a problem because when you are in the theatre it’s too late.  I was so impressed with being in the room with all the folks that I forgot I was one of them, and was there because they thought I could do the job.  If the Oscar Jaffe apartment set had not left the building that morning, I am sure I would have been out of the building that afternoon with a replacement lighting designer coming in.

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Sweeney Todd – Uris Theatre – March 1, 1979

Book by Hugh Wheeler
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Harold Prince
Dance and Movement by Larry Fuller
Scenery by Eugene Lee
Costumes by Franne Lee
Lighting by Ken Billington
Sound Design by Jack Mann

In the spring of 1978 Hal invited me to his office for a reading of a new musical Sweeney Todd.  It was a small group Hal, Ruth Mitchell, Hugh Wheeler, Stephen Sondheim, Judy Prince, Arthur Masella and a few others.  This was the first time they were putting the show all together.  Ruth would read the stage directions and do the timings; Hal would read all the dialogue and Steve played the piano and sang all the songs. When we got to the end of the show a couple of hours later, I clearly remember saying to myself, “This may be the best musical ever written”.  It turned out I was correct.

When we started Hal and Eugene Lee the scenic designer wanted to set the show during the industrial revolution.  Eugene and I were doing the pre-tech of La Fanculla Del West at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in July of 1978 and on a break, we went into the lobby and sat on the balcony steps, and he told me about his foundry concept.  In fact, he had found a deserted foundry in Rhode Island and was going to see what could be used onstage at the Uris (now Gershwin) Theatre.  Soon after Hal handed me a picture of Grand Central Station with light streaming through the windows. He said we should look like this but with lots of shadows and this is not London with fog and laundry hanging on lines. With that information in hand and with Eugene’s description of the foundry I knew exactly what Sweeney Todd should look like. 

The lightplot was simple with big 10,000 and 5,000 watt Fresnel spotlights doing most of the work.  I also used six followspots with four onstage and two in the rear of the auditorium. There was no color except for red when we did “City on Fire”, Pink for “Johanna” and blue green for the boat journey into London.  Eugene did purchase parts of the foundry and the scenic shop built the roof of the foundry and the walls.  All the steel and old props came from Rhode Island.

Since the show took several weeks to load into the theatre and we were behind on starting tech for the show. It was decided that the crew would continue to load in 8am to 6pm and then the actors would come in to do tech from 7pm to Midnight, this was a good solution, but it did not permit me to light the show during tech since so much was missing.  Finally, the set was up and finished and I could now light the show.  We had a tech in full costume with orchestra scheduled for 1pm. There were no cues written so at 11:30am before we went to lunch, I wrote the cues for the audience walk in, organ prelude the blackout at the end of the prelude and the lights up for “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.”  When we came back from lunch I said to Hal, “You know I have not lit the show yet.” He said he knew, and we would be ok.  The prelude went well but the cue for “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” happened and it was just bright and uninteresting. The lights came up and Hal stopped rehearsal, he walked up to me at the production table I was working at in the middle of the auditorium and said, “That’s not right, too bright, too much, just fix it.  I was using a memory lighting console which was new to big musicals, and it was easy to start turning things off.  I had put in a light on the floor down center stage to be used to create a big shadow on the back wall when a hanging took place.  The hanging part of the show had already been cut but those lights were still there.  I turned it all off and then turned on one light making big shadows of the company on the back wall.  Hal turned around and said, “That’s it kiddo”, and off we went.  When we went home that night, I had lit the entire show.

We started previews on Saturday evening February 3rd and 28 previews later March 1st we opened.  The rest is history.

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A Doll’s Life – Mark Hellinger Theatre – September 23, 1982

Book Lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Music by Larry Grossman
Directed by Harold Prince
Choreographed by Larry Fuller
Scenery by Timothy O’Brien
Costumes by Florence Klotz
Lighting by Ken Billington
Sound Design by Jack Mann

In the Spring of 1981, I was in Houston, Texas lighting Willie Stark with Hal.  At lunch one day he asked me to light the new musical A Doll’s Life which was scheduled for an out of town tryout at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles the following summer.  Hal proceeded to tell me the plot which was so simple.  Nora is in rehearsal for a production of the Ibsen play A Doll’s House.  As she slams the door at the end and before she re-enters for the curtain call she thinks of what could have happened to her.  The musical opens with a rehearsal of A Doll’s House and on the door slam the set goes away and we tell the story of Nora making it on her own.  At the end of the musical, she slams a door and returns and it’s the curtain call for the play.  Fascinating, with book and lyrics by Comden and Green and a beautiful Larry Grossman score.  Great design by Timothy O’Brien and Tazeena Firth based on the work of artist Edvard Munch, cast with George Hern, Peter Gallaher and Betsy Joslyn.  What could fail? But it did only four performances.  To this day I love this show and think it was overlooked, but perhaps we were all too close to it.  We opened on a Thursday and closed on Sunday which was a performance that was videotaped for the Theatre on Film and Tape division at the NYPL at Lincoln Center.  Betty Comden gave a closing party at her eastside town house, and everyone went, it was a sad but joyous party, perhaps one of the best theatre parties I have ever been to.  

I wish I had better photographs to show off the brilliant work of everyone.

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Play Memory – Longacre Theatre – April 19, 1984

Written by Joanna M. Glass
Directed by Harold Prince
Scenery by Clarke Dunham
Costumes by William Ivey Long
Lighting by Ken Billington
Sound Design by Rob Gorton

After A Doll’s Life, Hal jumped right into the next two projects, Play Memory by Joanna M. Glass and the Arthur Kopit play End of the World.  Play Memory had out of town tryouts at the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia, followed by the McCarter theatre in Princeton before opening at the Longacre theatre on Broadway.

Like the title says this is a memory play and Clarke Dunham designed a very fluid set of scrims in various shapes and sizes that could change the locale effortlessly. As for the lighting, it was warm and in places very sentimental.  We all set out to do what we had been charged with.  Hal had a first rate cast and at the end of the show the audience would all be sobbing, some uncontrollably.  That for me was enough to say they loved it, but the critics did not and the show closed after fivr performances.

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End of the World – Music Box Theatre – May 6, 1984

Written by Arthur Kopit
Directed by Harold Prince
Scenery by Clarke Dunham
Costumes by William Ivey Long
Lighting by Ken Billington
Sound Design by Rob Gorton

The play End of the World was originally titled The End of the World with Symposium to Follow.  The title was shorted after the out of town tryout at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theatre.  A play about the nuclear arms debate was a challenge.  Clarke Dunham did a set with rear projection on numerous screens which kept the action fluid.  I did all my expressionistic lighting including the uplights in the floor that had worked so well in the original production of Cabaret.  Hal always thought the uplight would make a wall of light that would obscure the scenic transitions happening upstage.  I tried valiantly but kept failing. I needed atmosphere in the air in the form of haze and in 1984 that would mean burning Salammoniac in heat cones.  This was the standard way of getting haze on stage at that time.  Salammoniac is moderately hazardous and it smelled funny.  Since 1996 we use anatomized haze fluid which is harmless.  I think the haze in 1984 lasted one rehearsal and was cut and the transitions were reconceived. The rest of the lighting was unusual for a Broadway play — I had banks of beamlights cutting though the air and a rear followspot to follow leading man John Shea when he was narrating.  A very interesting idea and it looked good.  

Clarke Dunham and I both received Tony Nominations as did Linda Hunt for Best Actress in a Play.  She had to miss a performance when she flew to Los Angeles to accept the Academy Award as best supporting actress for The Year of Living Dangerously. No matter how interesting, the show closed after 33 performances.

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Grind – Mark Hellinger Theatre – April 16, 1985

Book by Fay Kanin
Music by Larry Grossman
Directed by Harold Prince
Choreographed by Lester Wilson
Scenery by Clarke Dunham
Costumes by Florence Klotz
Lighting by Ken Billington
Sound Design by Otts Munderloh

Grind was an interesting musical based on black and white burlesque in Chicago. This takes place in the days of segregation when black and white performers could not perform on the same stage at the same time. They would all socialize backstage but onstage it was segregated. Fay Kanin wrote the book, Larry Grossman the music and Ellen Fitzhugh the lyrics. Clarke Dunham did a set with at large turntable that on one side had a stage with a working stage house complete with a fly floor and on the other side was the backstage warren of dressing rooms. Florence Klotz did the costumes winning the Tony Award. Hal always said the opening number of Grind, “This Must Be the Place”, was the best opening of any of the shows he directed.

With a large set and many flying pieces there was not much room for lighting fixtures. This was of concern for me since I needed many separate lights to light the warren of dressing rooms in the backstage set. To add to my concern was the fact that the turntable could stop in any position and the lights I had focused for the first dressing room scene would not work in the second dressing room scene. I went to the general manager and said I wanted to add automated lighting equipment to the show. That way no matter where the turntable stopped I could from the lighting console move a light to the correct area.

Automated lighting equipment is the standard now in theatre and in concerts and spectaculars. A Broadway show can have 75 to 100 moving lights if not more where the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games could have 2000. In 1984 no one knew what I was talking about, the automated light as we know it today had just been invented in 1980 and here, we were in 1984 and I was the first designer to specify them for Broadway. With four Morpheus Panaspots, a separate lighting console to control them and a separate programmer, it was an expensive proposition. It worked and all the dressing rooms looked great, then it was mentioned that all this money had been spent on moving lights and nobody saw them move. They were being a workhorse in lighting the show but only moved when they were turned off. To solve that problem during the opening number I moved two lights panning from one side of the stage to the other like searchlights. Since nobody had seen anything like this before onstage, I was a genius which meant the concern about the cost was forgotten.

It was an amazing looking show. It ran for 71 performances.

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Roza – Royale Theatre – October 1, 1987

Book Lyrics by Julian More
Music by Gilbert Becaud
Directed by Harold Prince
Musical Staging by Patricia Birch
Scenery by Alexander Okun
Costumes by Florence Klotz
Lighting by Ken Billington
Sound Design by Otts Munderloh

In December of 1986 Roza opened at the Baltimore Center Stage, it would then move to the Mark Taper Forum opening in April of 1987, finally we landed at the Royale Theatre on Broadway October 10, 1987 and closed 12 performances later. It was a big hit in Baltimore and Los Angeles and the star Georgia Brown gave an incredible performance.  Roza is the musical version of the film Madame Rosa which starred Simone Signoret.  It takes place in a rooming house in Paris and Madame Rosa’s apartment is on the 5th floor where a great deal of the action takes place.  It also takes place in other apartments and on the street and was as impossible a show to design as I had ever read.  Hal brought on Russian set designer Alex Okun who solved the problem.  The set was like an Escher print.  You started on stage level walked up 32 steps and ended up 2 feet off the stage floor.  It is one of the most interesting sets I have ever seen and solved how to tell the story in a single set with many locations.  I am sad to say I do not have a photograph of the set as it would be a master class for design students.  

Hal Prince usually does not do a note session after the performance.  You catch up with him at intermission and figure out what the next day will be.  He assumes you know what’s wrong in your department and will solve the problem.  Ruth Mitchell, Hal’s associate, might catch you at the end of the show and tell you something specific, but you know from the way the performance went what the goals the next day are.  We opened at a regional theatre company, Baltimore Center Stage.  A first class company but not used to having a director such as Hal Prince along with his creative team.  The first preview went OK. A door fell off its hinges, but it was fine.  Hal told us at intermission what we would be doing the next day.  I told my head electrician that I would need the crew at a certain hour and the followspots at 11am.  She looked at me puzzled and said we will discuss at the meeting. I said Hal does not do post performance meetings and that what I had told her was the schedule.  As I was walking out of the theatre to head to the hotel, I noticed all the theatre staff gathering in the front rows.  There was nobody from the creative team of Roza there just the theatre staff.  They could not believe that you could do a big musical and not have a meeting after the preview.  They stayed and talked for over an hour, and we came in the next day and did all the work that was intended to be done.  Hal found it puzzling and then got pages of notes from the artistic director about what was discussed at the meeting.  On all the Hal Prince productions I did I do not remember ever having a post performance note session.

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Candide – Gershwin Theatre – April 29, 1997

Book by Hugh Wheeler
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Directed by Harold Prince
Choreographed by Patricia Birch
Scenery by Clarke Dunham
Costumes by Judith Dolan
Lighting by Ken Billington
Sound Design by Jonathan Deans

Candide is listed three times in this Hal Prince section, and they are all based on the original production we did for the New York City Opera in 1982.  All the productions had basically the same set and costumes as well as direction and staging. The full stage picture seen above is from the 2017 NY City Opera production.

There had been talk since 1982 of moving the production to Broadway. In 1994 the NY City Opera production was done at the Chicago Lyric Opera Company and Canadian producer Garth Drabinsky saw it and wanted to bring it to Broadway.  Garth had great success with Hal on Kiss of the Spider Woman and Showboat and thought this show would be good for the Gershwin Theatre.  The set and costumes were purchased from the City Opera and Clarke Dunham, the scenic designer, was asked by Garth to expand the set into the auditorium.  Murals were added that went up the side walls of the theatre to the back row make a “circus” environment. I upgraded the lighting plot to include automated fixtures and expanded the plot to include the lighting additions we had done in Chicago.  In fact, I should have rethought and redesigned the production. This was after all Broadway. I did do this for the 2017 production.

Hal Prince, besides being a brilliant director, was a brilliant producer and knew everything about a production.  During a late preview the show was going very well but the followspots were doing something else.  It sure did not look like Candide and they were a mess.  During intermission I went backstage to find Hal and tell him that I would take care of the spots.  He greeted me with, “It’s going so well this evening. The cast has found it and I could not be happier”.  I started to apologize for the sloppy spot work when Garth came through the pass door screaming about the lighting, loud enough to be heard by the audience.  Hal told him to be quiet and that the show was working and he by yelling within ear shot of the cast could demoralize them.  He then said, “Ken knows what’s wrong with the lighting and will take care of it”.  Garth started again and Hal told Garth to leave the theatre and he did.  I think Garth was being passionate which he is but was not seeing the bigger picture. Hal as the director put on his old producing hat looking at the bigger picture.  The show works; we will fix whatever is wrong with the lighting.  The show opened and got good reviews but only lasted 104 performances.

OFF-BROADWAY

Diamonds – Circle in the Square – December 16, 1984

Directed by Harold Prince
Choreographed by Theodore Pappas
Scenery by Tony Straiges
Costumes by Judith Dolan
Lighting by Ken Billington
Sound Design by Tom Morse

Diamonds was Hal’s first venture to Off-Broadway.  A baseball musical review and he got 14 book writers and 11 composers and lyricists.  Including Gerard Alessandrini, Cy Coleman, John Kander & Fred Ebb, Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Craig Carnelia, Larry Grossman, Jonathan Sheffer, Ellen Fitzhugh and David Zippel.  As well as an amazing group of performers including Loni Ackerman, Dick Latessa and Jackee Harry.  Tony Straiges designed the environmental set that took up the entire Circle in the Square Downtown theatre and Judy Dolan did the costumes with Paul Gemignani as musical director.  

I wish I had a photograph of the set that Tony put in the theatre. It was a turn of the century ballpark with a baseball diamond in the middle and the audience on three sides.  My problem was that there were only 200amps of electricity available at the Circle in the Square Theatre, so it was hard to light a total environment with not enough power, but somehow it all happened.  Everyone had great fun, The part that was not fun, I was lighting the Broadway production of The Three Musketeers at the Broadway Theatre on 53rd Street which was supposed to open before Diamonds.  On Musketeers after the dress rehearsal the original director was replaced by Joe Layton.  That meant we started over in writing and tech and previews and postponed the opening.  Luckily for me the subway stop in front of the Broadway Theatre could get me to the West Village in 10 minutes.  The Three Musketeers opened on November 11, 1984 and closed nine performances later.  As much as Joe Layton tried, he could not make it work.  On the other hand the terrific musical Diamonds opened December 16, 1984 and ran 124 performances. It should have been longer.  The demo cassette I have of the show tells me how good it really was.

OPERA

Ashmedai – New York City Opera – April 1, 1976

Composition by Josef Tal
Directed by Harold Prince
Choreography by Ron Field
Scenery by Eugene Lee
Costumes by Franne Lee
Lighting by Ken Billington

Ashmedai was a new opera by Israeli composer Josef Tal and was the first opera that Hal Prince had ever directed.  Ron Field did the choreography, Eugene Lee did the scenery and Franne Lee the costumes.  I was the first outside lighting designer in 20 years to work at the City Opera.  All their productions were lit by Hans Sondheimer a brilliant designer who was also the technical director.  Since the NY City opera was a repertory opera company, with numerous productions playing each week, having an in house lighting designer working with the repertory light plot made sense. In fact, that was how it was done at the time in most repertory opera houses in the world.  I came along because Hal had to have his team of designers and Hans was most generous and welcoming to me.  Hans was a true gentleman and did not hinder and only helped me realize the lighting.  The lighting was radically different from what was the normal lighting for the company.  I added 5000w Fresnel backlights, strong side light, the heavy use of hard edge followspots plus no use of color. Hans said to me he did not understand the lighting but it was well done and it worked for the opera.  A great compliment from a great man; we stayed friends until his passing many years later. It was a big change for the company also bringing in a Broadway team. The production was a hit mostly because of Hal’s brilliant concept. 

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La Fanciulla Del West – Lyric Opera of Chicago – September 26, 1978

Directed by Harold Prince
Scenery by Eugene Lee
Costumes by Franne Lee
Lighting by Ken Billington

La Fanciulla del West (Girl of the Golden West) was the second opera Hal Prince directed.  Eugene Lee did the scenery, Franne Lee the costumes.  It was presented by the Chicago Lyric Opera in the opulent Lyric Opera House. Conceived to be big and grand but with a Eugene Lee take on grand opera.  A huge mountain filled the stage and two small turntables downstage that would reveal a bar or cabin.  A small intimate playing space with a large surround, Eugene would employ this again the following year with Sweeney Todd.  One incident I remember, the conductor who was very Italian, did not understand the more unconventional way Hal was doing the show but musically is was going swell.  We came to a transition and there was not enough music to cover the transition.  Hal asked the Maestro if he could do a repeat of the music, something we do in the musical theatre all the time.  The music director aghast said but this is what was written to which Hal said if Puccini were still alive he would write some more change music.  We figured out how to do the transition with the existing music.  Opening night arrived and as is the tradition in opera the creatives take a bow.  Carol Fox the General Manager did not think the lighting designer should take a bow even with protests from Hal.  Her reply was that if we let him take a bow then the technical director would need to come out.  About as rude a thing you can say to someone who helped conceive and design the show.  Since then, there is a clause in my contracts that says I take an equal number of bows as the scenic and costume designer.

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Silverlake – New York City Opera – March 20, 1980

Book by Hugh Wheeler (after Georg Kaiser)
Lyrics by Lys Symonette
Music by Kurt Weill
Directed by Harold Prince
Choreography by Larry Fuller
Choreography by Larry Fuller
Scenery & Costumes by Manuel Lutgenhort
Lighting by Ken Billington

Silverlake is a reworking of the Kurt Weill and George Kaiser opera Der Silbersee.  When Der Silbersee opened in Germany in 1933, it was a huge success, but the Nazi propaganda machine headed by Joseph Goebbels was not going to allow it to continue. In fact, days after the premier, Kurt Weill and his wife Lotte Lenya escaped to Paris only hours before the Gestapo agents were at their apartment.  Julius Rudel, the music director of the New York City Opera, enlisted Hal Prince to reimagine this opera.  Hal in turn got Hugh Wheeler to write the new book and Lys Symonette to write the lyrics.

With the assistance of Lotte Lenya recalling the original, Hal had Manuel Lutgenhorst create the most German expressionist set I had ever seen.  It consisted of a mirrored portal and rolling mirrors.  We had done a similar rolling mirror scheme on the Broadway production of The Visit  in 1973.  What we knew about the mirror panels is that when something is illuminated behind them, they become translucent.  As the audience came into the theatre, as you can see from the photos, they were looking at themselves and seeing some of the scenic pieces through the mirror.  As the conductor came out to take his bow, the lights behind the mirrors faded out and the audience was still looking at themselves.  Then with the downbeat we lit the entire company behind the mirrors and they were looking at the audience that was still reflected looking at them.  A haunting and scary moment.

With Joel Gray playing the leading character, it was an opera that was all about shadow and shafts of light.  At one point Joel is enclosed by the panels making a mirror box around him.  I then lit straight down into the box, and it became an infinity box with Joel Gray seeing endless versions of himself in the mirrors, there was no escaping.

The opera was recorded by Nonesuch Records but never came back to the City Opera after the premier season.

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Willie Stark – Houston Grand Opera – April 24, 1981

Composition by Carlisle Floyd
Directed by Harold Prince
Scenery by Eugene Lee
Costumes by Judith Dolan
Lighting by Ken Billington

Willie Stark is an opera in three acts written by Carlisle Floyd based on the 1946 Robert Penn Warren Pulitzer Prize winning novel All the King’s Men. Which subsequently was made into a motion picture winning the 1949 Best Picture Academy Award. The opera premiered at the Houston Grand Opera and was recorded for television by PBS Great Performances in June of 1981. Eugene Lee designed a forty-foot-wide staircase that went from the Apron to the back wall. With some hanging and sliding units it was a simple set. The lighting had to do all the isolation, color, and mood for the entire opera. This was the fourth opera that Hal had directed and was the first in English and was a play set to music. Right up Hal’s alley. The technical process was straightforward and it all flowed seamlessly. After the opening night the show was taped over several days with a master shot during an evening performance.

In February of 2017 the Paley Center for Media had a screening of the PBS video. I went to see the show I had designed the lighting for 35 years later. In a note to Hal after the screening I wrote:

“To say I was blown away by how incredible the writing is, is an understatement, and the cast was amazing. Looking back, Tim Nolen and Jan Curtis were stars.  I know you, like me, don’t look back much. We are aways looking forward, but Hal, it was directed brilliantly.  The audience at the screening gasped several times.  The concept was spot on, and I am proud to say I was there with you doing it.”

I then received this reply from Hal:

“How damn happy I am to hear from you. Judy had found the notice in New York Magazine about the screening the very same week it happened so I immediately shot off a letter to Carlisle. I regret that I wasn’t in New York – of course I would’ve been there with you. As for how it holds up, well what could be happier to know? I’m thrilled not only that you were blown away, but that you showed up. You are a champ. I recall that experience in Houston with great affection. I believe we did well, but I suspect I might have believed it even more had I seen it after all these years. Thanks for writing, thanks for being there, thanks for being you.”

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Candide – NY City Opera – October 13, 1982

Orchestrations by Leonard Bernstein & Hershy Kay
Directed by Harold Prince
Choreographed by Patricia Birch
Scenery by Clarke Dunham
Costumes by Judith Dolan
Lighting by Ken Billington

In 1982 a full production of Candide opened at the New York City Opera.  Hal had great success with a scaled-down production that had moved from the Brooklyn Academy of Music to the Broadway theatre and was a great success running over 700 performances.  For the full production to be done at the New York State Theatre he brought on a new design team: Clarke Dunham (Scenery) Judith Dolan (Costumes) and myself for lighting.  This was a production that needed to run in repertory, had an orchestra of 50 and an opera size chorus.  Hal staged it on ever changing set pieces on a platform in the middle of a circus tent.  The difference between technical rehearsals at an opera house and on Broadway is time. On Broadway you would have at least 40 hours of tech time. At the opera 20 hours.  To do a complex show with so many transitions and a repertory light plot can be a challenge in limited time.  Everyone was well rehearsed in the rehearsal rooms and then onstage. It was taking a long time to get the transitions slick.  Suddenly it was the afternoon for the final dress rehearsal the day before opening and we were not ready.  Act One went well and Act Two for about the first 20 minutes and then it fell apart.  It was just under rehearsed.  The audience did love it, but it was not ready.  As the audience was leaving Beverly Sills, the opera general director, said to Hal, “If you want you can rehearse tonight until 11pm.”  It was an unusual dark night at the opera.  We started after dinner with Act Two and went to work to get it up to where Act One was.  At one point Hal walked up to me at the production table, stood in the row in front of me and yelled, It looks terrible. I know it’s a rep light plot but it looks bad, do something”. He then walked away, got about 10 feet from me and came back to the table and said, “This is not personal at all, just make it look good.”  When the 15 minute break was called I went down and sat with Hal in the 5th row and we laughed and then went back to work.

We did open the following night and it was a smash and sold out every seat. It was in the repertory for years and was taped for Live from Lincoln Center.  It was such a hit there were proposals to move it to Broadway.  Negotiations started but the musicians union said it had to be the full opera orchestra not the 28 it was orchestrated for on Broadway.  With costs like that the show would be unstainable and nothing happened.

The City Opera production was done for the Houston Grand Opera in 1983 and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1994.  Candide did move to Broadway in 1997.
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Madama Butterfly – Lyric Opera of Chicago – November 17, 1982

Composition by Giacomo Puccini
Directed by Harold Prince
Scenery by Clarke Dunham
Costumes by Florence Klotz
Lighting by Ken Billington

In 1982 we were again off to the Chicago Lyric Opera this time for Madama Butterfly and I had a new clause in my contract that I get to take a bow with the other creatives. Clarke Dunham designed a turntable set that was always in a different position for each scene. The costumes by Florence Klotz were breathtaking. We did the opera in two acts, the second and third acts were combined. During the humming chorus the set did one revolve as we went from night to dawn. It was exquisitely staged. I have done many productions of Butterfly but this was the best. We also took the production to Houston (1990, 1993, 1999), Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires (1994) and it has been revived numerous times in Chicago.

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Turandot – Vienna State Opera – June 12, 1983

Composition by Puccini Giacomo
Directed by Harold Prince
Choreography by Francis Patrelle
Scenery by Timothy O’Brian, Tazeena Firth
Costumes by Timothy O’Brian, Tazeena Firth
Lighting by Ken Billington

In 1982 Hal said he had been asked by Lorin Maazel to direct Turandot for the Vienna State Opera The cast was Eva Marton, Jose Carreras and Karia Ricciarelli and Hal said we would have fun.  The opera was scheduled to open on June 12, 1983. Spring in Vienna, what could better? Timothy O’Brien and Tazzena Firth were onboard for scenery and costumes.  I went to Vienna to have a meeting with the technical department, and it turned out the theatre had never had a “lighting designer”.  They had very good lighting, but it was in the European way with the director and scenic designer talking to the head electrician about what they wanted.  So, I would be something new for this company.  With the opera schedule I would need to be in Vienna for two months and had a small apartment one block from the opera house.  There was an outdoor restaurant on the ground level and Hal, Francis Patrelle (choreographer), Vince Liotta (assistant director) and I would meet up daily.  Rehearsals were during the day but not every day and once onstage it was around a repertory schedule of other operas and ballets.  This was the reason we were all there for two months.

I finally had my first lighting rehearsal at 12:30 beginning after a staging rehearsal.  The week before I was asked if how many light walkers I would like.  A light walker is usually someone who stands in for a performer so you can see if all looks good.  Most opera companies I had worked with if you got two folks it was a good start.  I asked for two and I was looked at with puzzled faces.  I asked how many I could have and was told no more than 100.  I settled for 10, everyone in a different costume with make up. My lighting time comes and Hal leaves for lunch and I settle down at the production table to start lighting.  The head stage manager, who I had not seen before says we can’t start.  I wait 10 minutes and say we must get going.  It turns out they were waiting for Herr Prince.  I said he had gone to lunch, then we must find Herr O’Brien and I said he was in costume fittings. I then had to explain that I do the lighting, not Herr Prince or O’Brien.  Off we start. I then say to the stage manager that we will bleed through the scrim on this bar of music and then fly the scrim on that bar of music.  The reply was NO.   In Vienna we bleed through on this bar and take the drop out on this bar. That is what we always do.  He was holding the prompt script from the previous 1960s production of Turandot.  I let it go and continued and got act one lit.

I go to the restaurant when we finish, and Hal says I looked in. All looks great.  I then told him of my challenges of lighting since they had never had a lighting designer before.  The next day we have full cast and are running Act One with all lighting and technical.  Sure, enough the bleed through happens at the wrong time and the drop flies at the wrong time.  Hal stops rehearsal and the stage manager comes onstage and Hal asks what happened.  Hal is told that is where they always take the curtain out for Turandot.  Hal said no, it’s whatever Herr Billington wants he knows where all the lighting and scenery moves are and that the stage manager must listen to me.  We never saw that stage manager again.

The show was a big hit and was in the repertory for over 20 years.  Vienna Stats Opera  always has lighting designers now but someone had to be first.  We did shoot a video of the production right after opening which is now hard to find but a very good record of this amazing production.

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Don Giovanni – NY City Opera – July 6, 1989

Book Lyrics by Lorenzo Da Ponte
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Directed by Hal Prince
Choreography by Susan Stroman
Scenery & Costumes by Rolf Langenfass
Lighting by Ken Billington

In the world of opera, you are usually hired years in advance and Don Giovanni was no different.  Hal, who always worked a year in advance on his shows brought in new creatives with us this time: scenery and costume designer Rolf Langenfass and choreographer Susan Stroman.  Rolf created a simple set that was against black velour with columns that could be moved about by actors, a ramp and a plinth for the statue.  The fiery end of the show was done with smoke machines, fans and lighting.  My only concern was that overall, the production was too dark. Hal loved all the shadows and dark places but for an opera as long as Don Giovanni I thought it could have had a bit more light.  

It did not make any difference. We were a success, and the opera was in the repertory for 16 seasons.  The last time we did it for City Opera was in 2006 they had a new repertory light plot and I went in to make sure the lighting transferred well and then brightened it up a bit.  There was a plan to televise the production on Live from Lincoln Center and we did a full camera rehearsal during a performance in July of 1989 right after the premier.  There was a musicians’ strike against the opera around that time and the final taping of the show never happened.

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Candide – The new NY City Opera – January 6, 2017

Directed by Harold Prince
Choreographed by Patricia Birch
Scenery by Clarke Dunham
Costumes by Judith Dolan
Lighting by Ken Billington
Sound Design by Abe Jacobs

In December of 2015 I got a call from Arthur Masella, Hal’s associate on Candide, about a new New York City Opera production to open in January of 2017.  The NYC Opera had gone bankrupt, and a new reconstituted company headed by Michael Capasso wanted to do one of the City Opera’s biggest hits.  In meetings with the creative team, Hal outlined what he wanted to change in this production.  He liked the sets and costumes but thought this production should be darker (mood wise) and in the final “Make Our Garden Grow” to drain all the color from the show and give it the look of turning on fluorescent lights, then have the company stare at the audience in Brechtian fashion.  The original set and costumes were long gone so a new production was built based on the 1997 Broadway production.

Here I was with Hal Prince who I had been working with for 44 years who was almost 90 years old coming up with new ideas and going at it like it was brand new and the first time we were doing the show.  After the first day of technical rehearsal, Artie Masella who was running the technical rehearsals, fell at home breaking several ribs and could not come to the theatre for two days  So Hal, the master of musical theatre, took over tech like he was a kid.  He totally knew what to do and how to do it. He leaned on me to keep him apprised as to what was happening backstage, but Hal was teching a musical.  When we would finish at 6pm (we only worked in the afternoons), Hal did say he was bushed, but the next morning we were at it 100%.

This was my last show with Hal. He passed away July 19, 2019.  Every minute of every show was a creative joy and I believe I did some of my best work on his shows.  To finish with Candide and doing tech with Hal like it was 1978 was a joy and a treasure that I will always remember.