Playbill

Jonathan Bixby (Designer) Obituary
Jonathan Bixby, a Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional costume designer currently represented by the New York musical, Urinetown, died April 29, 2001, of colon cancer, according to The New York Times. Jonathan Bixby, a Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional costume designer currently represented by the New York musical, Urinetown, died April 29 of colon cancer, according to The New York Times.

Mr. Bixby, a native of Pennsylvania, was 41 and had also designed for TV's "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" (winning an Emmy Award for the latter). His Broadway credits included Band in Berlin, Street Corner Symphony and the most recent Carol Channing revival of Hello, Dolly! His costumes were seen in the Paris premiere of Hello, Dolly!

Mr. Bixby was a founding member of the Off-Broadway company, Drama Dept., and costume designed that troupe's The Torch-Bearers, Country Club, As Bees in Honey Drown, June Moon, Kingdom of Earth, As Thousands Cheer and Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Other design credits include the Encores! concerts of Strike Up the Band and Tenderloin, works at Jean Cocteau Rep, Merton of the Movies at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, Rhinoceros at New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, a production of Sayonara seen in Houston, Seattle and Los Angeles (for which he won an L.A. Drama Critics Award) and tours of The Sound of Music (with Marie Osmond), The Wiz (with Stephanie Mills), Brigadoon, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and Tango Passion (in Europe). For film, he designed for "Eventual Wife" and "Angel Passing."

At the out-of-the-way space called the American Theater of Actors, Urinetown, which has been nominated for several Drama Desk Awards and has been extended to June 30, Mr. Bixby created a world of extremes that reflects the satire's social range: Big-collared suits for the corrupt businesspeople and soiled workclothes for the downtrodden.

The Times reported that Mr. Bixby is survived by his companion, Bryan Bantry; mother Shirley of Florida; sister Deborah Bixby Hall of Connecticut; and brother Mark of Philadelphia.

— By Kenneth Jones

 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!