Brian MacDevitt

Brian MacDevitt
MacDevitt at the Tony Awards in 2024
Born	Long Island, New York
Education	State University of New York, Purchase (BFA)
Occupation(s)	Lighting designer, professor
Years active	1984-present
Awards	Tony Award for Best Lighting Design Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Play Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Musical

Brian MacDevitt is a lighting designer and educator. He has worked extensively on Broadway and Off Broadway, as well as touring, Regional theatre, and Industrial productions. He won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design for his work on the 2002 Broadway revival of Into The Woods. He also won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Play three times and the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Musical twice, most recently in 2024 for The Outsiders.

Early life and education

A Long Island, New York, native, MacDevitt went to Ward Melville High School in East Setauket. Afterwards, he attended SUNY Purchase and graduated with a degree in Lighting Design from the Department of Design/Technology of the Division of Theatre Arts & Film.

Career

After graduation MacDevitt spent a decade honing his craft with Off Broadway and other productions, and also developed a reputation as a teacher of design. He began teaching at Purchase as a visiting professor in 1986. He continued to balance his teaching career while breaking into Broadway in 1994 with What's Wrong With This Picture? MacDevitt started to achieve notice with the Terrence McNally play Love! Valour! Compassion! in 1995. His success continued through the 1990s, and eventually culminated with a Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in 2002 for the revival of Into the Woods. He won again in 2005 for The Pillowman, in 2007 for The Coast of Utopia, sharing the award with Kenneth Posner and Natasha Katz (The three also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for Utopia.)

In fall of 2009, MacDevitt began working as an Associate Professor of lighting design at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he is still teaching. He also designed the revival of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, Broadway Bound and David Mamet's new play Race. In the 2010 season he designed A Behanding in Spokane, Fences, Armida at The Metropolitan Opera, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. In 2011 he designed The Book of Mormon, Le comte Ory at The Metropolitan Opera and The House of Blue Leaves. MacDevitt won the Tony in 2009 for his lighting of the play Joe Turner's Come and Gone and again in 2011, for the musical Book of Mormon.

Productions

Broadway

• What's Wrong With This Picture? – 1994
• Love! Valour! Compassion! – 1995
• Master Class – 1995
• Summer and Smoke – 1996
• Sex and Longing – 1996
• Present Laughter – 1996
• Side Show – 1997
• Proposals – 1997
• The Diary of Anne Frank – 1997
• Wait Until Dark – 1998
• Night Must Fall – 1999
• True West – 2000
• The Ride Down Mt. Morgan – 2000
• The Dinner Party – 2000
• Judgment at Nuremberg – 2001
• The Invention of Love – 2001
• A Thousand Clowns – 2001
• Major Barbara – 2001
• Urinetown – 2001
• The Women – 2001
• Morning's at Seven – 2002
• Into the Woods – 2002
• Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune – 2002
• Tartuffe – 2003
• Nine – 2003
• Long Day's Journey Into Night – 2003
• The Retreat from Moscow – 2003
• Henry IV (Parts 1 and) 2) – 2003
• Fiddler on the Roof – 2004
• Match – 2004
• A Raisin in the Sun – 2004
• 'night, Mother – 2004
• Pacific Overtures – 2004
• Good Vibrations – 2005
• The Pillowman – 2005
• Sweet Charity – 2005
• Absurd Person Singular – 2005
• The Color Purple – 2005
• The Wedding Singer – 2006
• The Coast of Utopia (Part 1 - Voyage) – 2006
• The Vertical Hour – 2006
• Inherit the Wind – 2007
• Cymbeline – 2007
• A Catered Affair – 2008
• 13 – 2008
• Speed-the-Plow – 2008
• American Buffalo – 2008
• You're Welcome America – 2009
• Blithe Spirit – 2009
• Joe Turner's Come and Gone – 2009
• Accent on Youth – 2009
• Brighton Beach Memoirs – 2009
• Race – 2010
• A Behanding in Spokane – 2010
• Fences – 2010
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown – 2010
• The Book of Mormon – 2011
• The House of Blue Leaves – 2011
• The Mountaintop – 2011
• Chinglish – 2011
• Death of a Salesman – 2012
• Betrayal – 2013
• A Raisin in the Sun – 2014
• This Is Our Youth – 2014
• A Delicate Balance – 2014
• Fish in the Dark – 2015
• Blackbird – 2016
• The Front Page – 2016
• Carousel – 2018
• The Waverly Gallery – 2018
• The Minutes – 2022
• Plaza Suite – 2022
• The Outsiders - 2024

Touring

• Gigi (1984-1985)
• Can-Can (1988-1989)
• Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (1994-1996)
• Master Class (1996-1997)
• Urinetown (2003-2004)
• The Color Purple (2007-2010)
• The Book of Mormon Tours
  • Latter Day Tour (2012-2016)
  • Jumamosi Tour (2012-2020)

West End

• The Book of Mormon – 2021

Off-Broadway

• Splendid Mummer – 1988
• The Waves – 1990
• Subfertile – 1990
• Light Shining in Buckinghamshire – 1991
• Fayebird – 1991
• Shmulnik's Waltz – 1991
• Man, Woman, Dinosaur – 1992
• And – 1992
• Candide – 1992
• Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) – 1992
• Three Hotels – 1993
• Krapp's Last Tape – 1993
• Later Life – 1993
• The Maids – 1993
• Family Secrets – 1993
• First Lady Suite – 1993
• The Illusion – 1994
• The Mayors of Boy Town – 1994
• The Arabian Nights – 1994
• The Triumph of Love – 1994
• Dog Opera – 1995
• Northeast Local – 1995
• Master Class – 1995
• Blue Window – 1996
• Overtime – 1996
• Nude Nude Totally Nude – 1996
• A Line Around the Block – 1996
• By the Sea, By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea – 1996
• Henry V – 1996
• God's Heart – 1997
• Mizlansky Zilinsky or 'Schmucks' – 1998
• Corpus Christi – 1998
• The Ride Down Mt. Morgan – 1998
• Captains Courageous – 1999
• East is East – 1999
• The Taming of the Shrew – 1999
• The Exact Center of the Universe – 1999
• An Experiment with an Air Pump – 1999
• Fuddy Meers – 2000
• The Time of the Cuckoo – 2000
• Lydie Breeze (Parts 1 and 2) – 2000
• Spinning Into Butter – 2000
• Juno and the Paycock – 2000
• Comic Potential – 2000
• Resident Alien – 2001
• Urinetown – 2001
• Speaking in Tongues – 2001
• Homebody/Kabul – 2001
• Tuesdays with Morrie – 2002
• Blue/Orange – 2002
• Kimberly Akimbo – 2002
• Lone Star Love – 2004
• Dog Sees God – 2005
• Family Secrets – 2006
• The House in Town – 2006
• Pig Farm – 2006
• Our Leading Lady – 2007
• The Receptionist – 2007
• The Seagull – 2008
• Hold On to Me Darling – 2016

The Metropolitan Opera

• Armida – 2010
• Le comte Opry – 2011

Awards and nominations

Tony Awards

Year	Category	Work	Result
2002	Best Lighting Design	Into the Woods	Won
2003		Nine	Nominated
2004		Henry IV (Parts 1 and) 2)	Nominated
		Fiddler on the Roof	Nominated
2005	Best Lighting Design in a Play	The Pillowman	Won
2006	Best Lighting Design in a Musical	The Color Purple	Nominated
2007	Best Lighting Design in a Play	Inherit The Wind	Nominated
		The Coast of Utopia (Part 1 - Voyage)	Won
2009		Joe Turner's Come and Gone	Won
2010		Fences	Nominated
2011	Best Lighting Design in a Musical	The Book of Mormon	Won
2012	Best Lighting Design in a Play	Death of a Salesman	Nominated
2018	Best Lighting Design in a Musical	Carousel	Nominated
2024		The Outsiders	Won

Drama Desk Awards

Year	Category	Work	Result
1993	Outstanding Lighting Design	Three Hotels	Nominated
1995		Love! Valour! Compassion!	Nominated
2000		An Experiment with an Air Pump	Nominated
2001		The Invention of Love	Nominated
2004		Henry IV (Parts 1 and) 2)	Nominated
2007		The Coast of Utopia (Part 1 - Voyage)	Won
2012		Death of a Salesman	Won
2018	Outstanding Lighting Design For a Musical	Carousel	Nominated
2024		The Outsiders|style="background: #9EFF9E; color: #000; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="yes table-yes2 notheme"|Won

External links

• Brian MacDevitt at the Internet Broadway Database