9 minute read
A Life Painted in Light
from June 2025
Lunch with Ken Billington
By Randy Reid
One of the greatest privileges I have serving as Editor of designing lighting (dl) magazine is the opportunity to build lasting friendships with some of the world’s most talented lighting designers. Paul Gregory, IES is among that distinguished group, and over the years, our professional relationship has grown into a personal friendship.
So, when Paul discovered that I had never met the legendary theatrical lighting designer Ken Billington, he didn’t hesitate. He arranged for the three of us to have lunch.
Lunch with Ken Billington isn’t just a meal—it’s a master class. On a clear spring afternoon in New York, we met at Gallagher’s Steakhouse on West 52nd Street, just steps from the very theaters Ken has illuminated for decades. True to Paul’s instincts, the time spent with Ken was not only enlightening but unforgettable.
Ken Billington remains a towering figure in lighting design. His career spans 96 Broadway shows and 25 years as principal lighting designer at Radio City Music Hall, and includes a Tony Award for Best Lighting Design for the 1996 revival of Chicago.
Sitting across from him, what strikes you first isn’t his résumé. It’s his passion. He’s still energized by the magic of stagecraft, still tinkering with cues and bulb specs, still fighting for artistic control in a world increasingly dominated by LED complications and corporate decision-making.
Paul and I began with calamari. Ken, allergic to seafood, passed. As we settled in, he reflected on his earliest inspiration, “I turned the lights on and off for my fourth-grade play,” he said with a grin. “That was it. I knew what I wanted to do.” By 18, he was already working professionally. By 19, he was lighting Broadway.
He never looked back.
Ken recounted his most recent project: the Majestic Theatre previously home to The Phantom of the Opera for 35 years, where he led a full lighting upgrade. “We completed the renovation about a year ago,” he said. “Although the first production hadn’t loaded in yet, one of the major challenges was addressing the 47-foot dome.”
Initially, he experimented with LED grazers, but they proved ineffective. “Fortunately, there was an existing 148-foot trough in place,” Ken explained. “We opened it up, replaced the E26 sockets, installed new wiring, and ultimately fitted 148 Tala A19 Clear LED bulbs. The dome turned out beautifully—clearly, the original designers knew what they were doing.
Also in the auditorium: one large 10-foot-wide chandelier with 123 bulbs, eight medium chandeliers with 20 bulbs each, 19 small chandeliers with six lamps each, and 20 three-lamp sconces, all fitted with Tala Candle E12 Clear bulbs.
For the bar and retail areas as well as lobby highlights, Ken selected iGuzzini pin spots to highlight statues and architectural details. He added, “…and iGuzzini provided exactly what I needed.”
But the real challenge came with the lighting control system. “We used ETC’s Paradigm,” Ken noted, “and the complexity arose from how the system handled the chandeliers and sconces.” The main chandelier, for example, used to run on four 3K dimmers but now operates on a single 2400 W dimmer.
With multiple chandeliers spanning the space, the load and varying distances from the dimmer racks caused uneven fade-ins. “The lights would come on at slightly different times depending on their cable runs,” he said, “which disrupted the seamless look we were aiming for.”
Ken dove deep into the technical weeds—writing custom dimmer curves, creating pre-cues to avoid fade inconsistencies, and building macros to smooth transitions. “It’s not just about the fixture,” he emphasized. “It’s about the behavior of the light. That’s what the audience sees.”
The upfade posed the biggest challenge. While ETC was able to provide custom dimmer curves, Ken needed to ensure they worked for both fades up and down. “I didn’t need much for the downfade,” he said. “But the upfade was a different story.”
He discovered that fixtures wouldn’t visibly emit light until the system hit between 14% and 18% intensity. His solution? Write a cue at zero count to bump all dimmers into that activation range, follow it with a 0.7-second macro hold, and then trigger a second cue to bring the lights up gradually in 8 seconds—albeit in just two steps. “You could only get two steps out of it,” he said, “so I had to game the system.”
What made the Majestic project especially frustrating, Ken explained, was the broader issue of inconsistent behavior in modern LED fixtures and control systems. “I told ETC, ‘You’ve got to fix this. LEDs aren’t going away next week— they’re here to stay. If you want to stay in the game, you have to solve the fade curve problem.’”
His concern wasn’t with technological progress but with the lack of precision. “This isn’t just a Broadway issue,” he emphasized. “It’s going to show up in people’s living rooms. The standard has to be higher.” Fortunately, ETC responded and is addressing the issue, hopefully implementing a solution that will bring the LED system’s performance back in line with the professional demands of theatrical lighting.
As our burgers arrived, we shifted to the topic of tours. Chicago, for example, has nine active productions around the world. “They all look the same,” Ken said. “The contract requires it.”
That consistency, however, brings its own set of challenges. Many of the original fixtures—color scrollers, MR11 lamps, R40 floods—are no longer manufactured. “I still specify discontinued bulbs,” he explained. “We’ve resorted to buying cases on eBay and storing them in a warehouse. The technology changes, but the design has to remain consistent. When those bulbs are gone, I’ll find another way.”
When discussing his process, Ken emphasized that lighting design is as much about subtlety and sculpting as it is about illumination. “Sometimes color is about mixing,” he explained. “On stage, I might start with a pink wash, then layer in a bit of blue from another circuit, maybe some lavender from a third. That combination shifts the shadows just enough to create dimension.” His approach is less about lighting objects and more about shaping space and emotion, using contrast, texture, and nuance to tell the story.
Curious how such precise compositions hold up in real-time performance, I asked what happens if an actor is slightly off and not standing in the correct place. Ken smiled. “Actors are trained to hit their marks. That’s their job,” he said. “If someone ends up in the dark, they’ll quickly learn—if you want to be seen, you need to be in the light.”
While all lighting cues are pre-programmed, the execution isn’t automated. A stage manager watches the show live and calls each lighting cue, syncing it with the actors’ movements. “If someone’s walking across the stage,” Ken said, “the stage manager might call the cue five seconds before they reach their spot, and the lighting operator executes the change at just the right moment.” It’s a seamless blend of technical precision and live human intuition.
After lunch, Ken invited me to tour his office—a working archive of lighting history in the heart of the Theater District. The space is packed with project files, light plots, scale models, and photos documenting more than five decades of innovation and artistry.
We spoke about the contrast between theater and architectural lighting. Though Ken has made meaningful contributions to both, he’s partial to the collaborative spirit of theater. “Theater people are nice,” he said with a chuckle. “When a show closes, we’re all out of work. We help each other.”
His architectural lighting philosophy echoes his theatrical roots. “I paint with light. I don’t calculate lumens. It’s about how people feel in the space,” he said. “Downlights should be a last resort. Use sconces, chandeliers—fixtures that bring presence. The apparent source of light matters.”
He shared a story about a restaurant project where the lighting was so welcoming that patrons refused to leave. “The bartender even dimmed the lights to try and clear the place out,” Ken laughed. “The lighting was too good.”
Ken also reflected on the state of Broadway real estate. With only 38 theaters, nearly all of them occupied by long-running hits like Chicago, The Lion King, and Wicked it’s increasingly difficult to find space for new productions. “You can have a great new show that’s fully rehearsed and ready to go—but there’s no theater to put it in,” he said. “Broadway is a victim of its own success.”
Ken’s generosity stood out throughout our conversation. He openly shares knowledge with the next generation, whether it’s drawings, advice, or entire light plots. “I can’t light every show,” he said. “Why not help others do great work?”
For Ken, lighting is ultimately about emotion. “Good lighting makes you feel something,” he said. “It’s not about the light itself—it’s about the mood it creates. That’s what makes a show great. Not just the singer, but the way the light hits them at the right moment, against the right background.”
He doesn’t think of himself as a technician. “I’m not an engineer,” he said. “I’m an artist. I paint in layers. Color, shadow, contrast. Change the background, and the actor suddenly jumps forward. That’s the magic.”
From our first bites of calamari to the last stories shared, Ken was candid, curious, and deeply committed to his craft. After more than five decades at the top of his profession, he’s still evolving, still problem-solving, and still showing up, often with a roll of gels in hand.
As we parted ways, I silently thanked Paul Gregory for arranging the meeting. Spending an afternoon with Ken Billington wasn’t just an interview—it was a front-row seat to the legacy of a legend.
And yes, the lighting was perfect.
