Howell Binkley
Encyclopedia
Howell Binkley is a professional lighting designer in New York City. He received the 2006 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design
of a musical for Jersey Boys.
Binkley attended East Carolina University
in Greenville
, North Carolina where he started his career working with dance programs.
He has lit a plethora of major Broadway
shows, including many for the prolific Hal Prince
and is a frequent collaborator with director Des McAnuff
. He is also a collaborator and co-founder of David Parsons's Parsons Dance Company
. He has worked at regional theaters such as La Jolla, San Diego, California
, Shakespeare Theatre
DC, Old Globe Theatre
, the Guthrie Theater
, The Goodman Theatre
, and Hartford Stage
.
Binkley is well known for his use of saturated color, accompanied by white or slightly cool highlights. He frequently uses smoke or haze to draw attention to his use of angle. His designs are partly based upon Craig Miller and Tom Skelton's use of cross focussing to make diamond effects.
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...
of a musical for Jersey Boys.
Binkley attended East Carolina University
East Carolina University
East Carolina University is a public, coeducational, engaged doctoral/research university located in Greenville, North Carolina, United States. Named East Carolina University by statute and commonly known as ECU or East Carolina, the university is the largest institution of higher learning in...
in Greenville
Greenville, North Carolina
Greenville is the county seat of Pitt County and principal city of the Greenville, North Carolina metropolitan area. Greenville is the health, entertainment, and educational hub of North Carolina's Tidewater and Coastal Plain and in 2008 was listed as the Tenth Largest City in North Carolina...
, North Carolina where he started his career working with dance programs.
He has lit a plethora of major 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...
shows, including many for the prolific Hal Prince
Hal Prince
Harold Smith Prince is an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the past half-century...
and is a frequent collaborator with director Des McAnuff
Des McAnuff
Desmond McAnuff is the Canadian-American artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and director of musical theatre of such Broadway productions as Big River, The Who's Tommy and Jersey Boys.-Biography:...
. He is also a collaborator and co-founder of David Parsons's Parsons Dance Company
Parsons Dance Company
-External links:*** accessed 23 June 2007**...
. He has worked at regional theaters such as La Jolla, San Diego, California
La Jolla, San Diego, California
La Jolla is an affluent, hilly seaside resort community, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean in Southern California within the northern city limits of San Diego. La Jolla had the highest home prices in the nation in 2008 and 2009; the average price of a standardized...
, Shakespeare Theatre
Shakespeare Theatre Company
The Shakespeare Theatre Company is a regional theatre company located in Washington, D.C. Their self professed mission "is to present classic theatre of scope and size in an imaginative, skillful and accessible American style that honors the playwrights’ language and intentions while viewing their...
DC, Old Globe Theatre
Old Globe Theatre
The Old Globe is a professional theatre company located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It produces about 15 plays and musicals annually in summer and winter seasons...
, the Guthrie Theater
Guthrie Theater
The Guthrie Theater is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the result of the desire of Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Oliver Rea, and Peter Zeisler to create a resident acting company that would produce and perform the classics in...
, The Goodman Theatre
Goodman Theatre
The Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of Chicago theatre, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization...
, and Hartford Stage
Hartford Stage
Hartford Stage, located in Hartford, Connecticut, is one of the leading resident theatres in the United States, known internationally for entertaining and enlightening audiences with a wide range of the best of world drama, from classics to provocative new plays and musicals and neglected works...
.
Binkley is well known for his use of saturated color, accompanied by white or slightly cool highlights. He frequently uses smoke or haze to draw attention to his use of angle. His designs are partly based upon Craig Miller and Tom Skelton's use of cross focussing to make diamond effects.
Works (selected)
- Kiss of the Spider WomanKiss of the Spider Woman (musical)Kiss of the Spider Woman is a musical with music by John Kander and Fred Ebb, with the book by Terrence McNally. It is based on the Manuel Puig novel El Beso de la Mujer Araña...
(Broadway, 1993) - Tony Award nomination - Minnelli on MinnelliLiza MinnelliLiza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
(Concert, 1999) - ParadeParade (musical)Parade is a musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. The musical was first produced on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on December 17, 1998. The production was directed by Harold Prince and closed 28 February 1999 after only 39 previews and 84 regular...
(Broadway, 1998) - Drama Desk Award nomination - The Full MontyThe Full Monty (musical)The Full Monty is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally and score by David Yazbek.In this Americanized musical stage version adapted from the 1997 British film of the same name, six unemployed Buffalo steelworkers, low on both cash and prospects, decide to present a strip act at a local club...
(Broadway, 2000)- Drama Desk Award nomination - Bounce (Broadway, 2003)
- Golda's BalconyGolda's BalconyGolda's Balcony is a play by William Gibson.It follows the trajectory of the life of Golda Meir from Russian immigrant to American schoolteacher to a leader of international politics as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Much of its focus is on the period surrounding the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when...
(Off Broadway, 2008 / Broadway, 2003) - Avenue QAvenue QAvenue Q is a musical in two acts, conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote the music and lyrics. The book was written by Jeff Whitty and the show was directed by Jason Moore and produced by Kevin McCollum, Robyn Goodman, and Jeffrey Seller...
(Broadway, 2003 / London, 2006) - Radiant Baby (Off-Broadway, 2003) - Lucille Lortel Award nomination
- Jersey BoysJersey BoysJersey Boys is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is a documentary-style musical, based on one of the most successful 1960s rock 'n roll groups, the Four Seasons...
(Broadway, 2005 / London, 2008) - LoveMusikLoveMusikLoveMusik is a musical written by Alfred Uhry, using a selection of music by Kurt Weill. The story explores the romance and lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, based on Speak Low : The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, edited and translated by Lys Symonette & Kim H. Kowalke. Harold Prince...
(Broadway, 2007) - Drama Desk Award win - In the HeightsIn the HeightsIn the Heights is a musical with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story explores three days in the characters' lives in the New York City Dominican-American neighborhood of Washington Heights....
(Broadway, 2008) - Tony Award nomination - Bridge and Tunnel (Broadway, 2006)
- West Side Story (Broadway revival, 2009) - Tony Award nomination
- LombardiLombardi (play)Lombardi is a play by Eric Simonson, based on the book When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss.-Synopsis:...
(Broadway, 2010) - Baby It's You!Baby It's You!Baby It's You! is a jukebox musical written by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott, featuring the music of the 1960s pop group The Shirelles. The show "tells the story of Florence Greenberg and Scepter Records, the label Florence started when she signed The Shirelles." After several tryouts and...
(Broadway, 2011) - How To Succeed in Business Without Really TryingHow to Succeed in Business Without Really TryingHow to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's 1952 book of the same name....
(Broadway revival, 2011) - Tony Award nomination