Tony Winning Lighting Designer Howell Binkley has died

Howell Binkley, a living legend in the theatre lighting design community, has died following a bout with cancer.

Mr. Binkley’s design work had been seen on stage in productions such as Kiss of the Spider Woman, Avenue Q, In the Heights, Jersey Boys, and Hamilton. He received seven Tony nominations and won two for Jersey Boys and Hamilton.

I met Mr. Binkley on a couple of occasions. Once at the Tony Awards the night he won for Hamilton and at BroadwayCon during a panel I hosted about lighting design. He was incredibly kind and generous with his time with me on both and provided some really insightful answers to all the questions thrown at him.

More than that, he made an effort to speak at length to lighting design students at the convention.

One of the best. He will be missed.