Jules Fisher Among Tony Award Lifetime Achievement Winners for 2026

The Tony Awards Administration Committee is honoring lighting designer Jules Fisher, artistic director Andre Bishop, and playwright/director James Lapine with 2026 Special Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.

"How lucky are we to have such a wealth of deserving talent, whose lifetimes of contributions left us unable to select just one recipient of this prestigious honor," say Jason Laks, president of the Broadway League, and Heather Hitchens, president/CEO of the American Theatre Wing. "The work that Ande, Jules, and James have done, and continue to do, will leave an indelible mark for generations to come. They are each a constant source of inspiration, and we look forward to celebrating them at Broadway's biggest night."

Fisher has designed lighting for Broadway, film, the music industry, and digital animation. In a Broadway career spanning more than 60 years, he has designed more than 100 plays and musicals and has earned nine Tony Awards and 25 nominations. Among his designs are Hair; Jesus Christ Superstar; Pippin; Ragtime; Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk; Angels in America; Assassins; and The Iceman Cometh starring Denzel Washington. Most recently, he and his artistic partner Peggy Eisenhauer designed the 2025 revival of Gypsy, starring Audra McDonald.

Fisher's film work includes Dreamgirls, Chicago, and School of Rock, among other projects. Evolving naturally into dramatic and fantastical lighting in the digital realm, his musical lighting scenes have been conceived for CG environments in the live-action Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, as well as development projects for DreamWorks Animation.

Fisher created inventive lighting before and throughout the evolution of digital lighting sources for artists as diverse as David Bowie, Kiss, Parliament-Funkadelic, Whitney Houston, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, and Simon and Garfunkel.

In addition to entertainment, Fisher is a founder of the architectural lighting design firm Fisher Marantz Stone, which has designed landmark projects such as the Getty Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Washington Monument; the National Gallery of London; the renovation of Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall; and, most recently, the Obama Presidential Center. Perhaps most notably, Fisher Marantz Sone created the now iconic Tribute in Light at the World Trade Center Memorial.

Fisher also founded the theatre consulting firm Fisher Dachs Associates. FDA's projects include the renovation of David Geffen Concert Hall at Lincoln Center; opera houses in Toronto, Korea, Miami, and St. Petersburg; the Stephen Sondheim Theater on Broadway; new theaters for the Guthrie Theater, Stratford Festival, Old Globe; and the soon-to-open Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival theatre in Garrison New York, as well as unique projects like refitting the Park Avenue Armory to accommodate large-scale performance, and many others.

Fisher holds a bachelor's degree in drama from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a 2015 honorary doctorate. His lighting design company, with Eisenhauer, Third Eye, conceives and designs lighting for all forms of entertainment. His hobby and vice is a lifelong interest in magic, leading him to consult for many of the top magicians, including the late Ricky Jay, David Blaine, and Harry Blackstone Jr.

Among the other winners, Bishop served as artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater from January 1992 until June 2025, and as producing artistic director from July 2013 until June 2025. Before arriving at Lincoln Center Theater, he was Playwrights Horizons' artistic director for ten years and as its literary manager for six. His many successful productions at that theater included the original productions of three Pulitzer Prize winners: The Heidi Chronicles, Driving Miss Daisy, and Sunday in the Park with George.

Lapine has been nominated for 12 Tony Awards in four categories and has won on three occasions for his librettos for Falsettos, Into the Woods, and Passion. He collaborated with Stephen Sondheim on Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Passion, and the revue Sondheim on Sondheim and with William Finn on Falsettos, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, A New Brain, and Little Miss Sunshine. He is also the author of five plays, including his adaptation of Moss Hart's Act One for Lincoln Center Theater. Lapine has also worked frequently off-Broadway and at regional theaters and has directed four feature films. His HBO documentary Six By Sondheim received a Peabody Award and an Emmy nomination for direction. He also won five Drama Desk Awards. Sunday in the Park with George received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He has been inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.