Richard Pilbrow book cover
Lighting Design

Selected Productions:

London:

Brand (59 Theatre Company)

As You Like It (RSC)

Blitz!

One Over the Eight

Gone With The Wind

Singing in the Rain

Oklahoma!

Peer Gynt

Lighting director to the National Theatre Company included:

The Three Sisters

Othello

The Storm

Heartbreak House

Eden End

Broadway:

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

The Rothchilds

Four Baboons Adoring The Sun (1993 Tony Award nomination).

The Life

(Tony Award nomination)

Show Boat

(Drama Desk Award, Outer Circle Critics Award-lighting)

Toronto

(Dora Award - Outstanding Lighting)

National Tour

(NAACP Award for Lighting)

Our Town

(with Paul Newman at the Westport Playhouse, on Broadway and for a hi-definition video for PBS)

The Tale of Two Cities

Hirschfeld Theatre, NYC (Drama Desk nomination for outstanding lighting design 2008)

Candida 2010

Molly Sweeney (with Michael Gottlieb)          2011

Dancing at Lughnasa (with Michael Gottlieb)  2011

Transport (with Michael Gottlieb) 2014

The Irish Repertory Theatre

Los Angeles:

Sir Peter Hall's The Magic Flute,

(and Seattle & Washington Opera)

1999 Shakespeare Season at the Ahmanson Theatre

Goodspeed Summer Musicals:

Where’s Charley?

Very Good Eddie

The Boy Friend (with Dawn Chiang) Moussical (with Michael Gottlieb)

Metropolitan Opera House:

The Sleeping Beauty (with Dawn Chiang) for American Ballet Theatre


Sydney Opera House

My Fair Lady - The 60th Anniversary production - directed by Julie Andrews

Lighting Design


Richard is a pioneer of modern stage lighting in Britain and his work has been seen in London, New York, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Moscow. He was the first British lighting designer to design the lighting for a Broadway musical, Zorba.  He was the lighting designer of the Hal Prince hit revival of Show Boat on Broadway (Drama Desk Award, Outer Circle Critics Award-lighting), in Toronto (Dora Award - Outstanding Lighting) and on tour throughout the US (NAACP Award for Lighting); and the Cy Coleman musical The Life, for which he received a Tony Award nomination. He was lighting designer for Our Town with Paul Newman at the Westport Playhouse, on Broadway and for a hi-definition video for PBS. In 2006 Richard was represented as a lighting designer (with Dawn Chiang) on the USA National tour of The Boy Friend for Goodspeed Summer Musicals, for which he also lit Where’s Charley? and Very Good Eddie.

During the 1960’s and 70’s the Theatre Projects Lighting design team grew to include such luminaries as Robert Ornbo, Robert Bryan, John B. Read, David Hersey, Andrew Bridge, Graham Large, Benny Ball, Steve Kemp, Molly Friedel, Nick Chelton, Durham Maranghi, Nigel Levings and others; many of whom began as Richard’s assistants.

2007/11 productions included a new full length ballet for American Ballet Theatre “The Sleeping Beauty” (with Dawn Chiang) designed by Tony Walton, at the Metropolitan Opera House; “The Tale of Two Cities” — a New Musical at the Hirschfeld Theatre in September 2008; “Candida” at the Irish Rep, directed and designed by Tony Walton in March 2010, “Molly Sweeney” (with Michael Gottlieb) by Brian Friel, directed by Charlotte Moore and designed by James Morgan; “Dancing at Lughnasa” directed by Charlotte Moore (again with Michael Gottlieb).


2016/7 "My Fair Lady" at the Sydney Opera house and on tour across Australia. The 60th Anniversary production, directed by Julie Andrews.

Lighting Designer