OBITUARIES / PASSINGS / Tharon Musser

Tharon Musser, 84, a Tony-winning lighting designer of more than 100 Broadway shows, including such legendary musicals as “A Chorus Line,” “Dreamgirls,” “Mame” and “42nd Street,” died Sunday at her home in Newtown, Conn., after a long illness.

Musser was nominated for 10 Tony Awards for lighting design, winning three -- for “Follies,” “A Chorus Line” and “Dreamgirls.”

During her career, Musser worked with a who’s who of Broadway theater: directors George Abbott, Michael Bennett and Harold Prince; playwrights Edward Albee, Neil Simon and Tom Stoppard; and songwriters Fred Ebb, Jerry Herman, John Kander and Stephen Sondheim.

Her work on “A Chorus Line” proved revolutionary, using for the first time a completely computerized lighting console instead of the manually operated “piano boards.” Although her last Broadway show -- “The Lonesome West” -- was in 1999, Musser’s lighting for “A Chorus Line” was used in the musical’s 2006 New York revival.

Born Jan. 8, 1925, in Roanoke, Va., Musser graduated from Berea College in Kentucky and then went to the Yale School of Drama. She began her design career off-Broadway in 1949.

Musser’s Broadway career began in 1956 with the original production of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”