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Eugene Lee, noted Broadway and television set designer, dies at 83


Eugene Lee (Trinity Repertory Company)
Eugene Lee (Trinity Repertory Company)
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Eugene Lee, a Providence resident whose set designs were seen by Broadway and television audiences, has died.

Trinity Repertory Company said he was 83.

Lee was resident designer at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, as well as a production designer for "Saturday Night Live."

His imagination also created the Manhattan skyline-inspired set for "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

He won Tony awards for his set designs of "Wicked" and "Sweeney Todd" on Broadway.

"His legacy and contribution to the theater and television communities will always be cherished," the Twitter feed for "Wicked" said.

NBC 10 spoke with Trinity Rep Artistic Director Curt Columbus about Lee's legendary career.

"Eugene treated all of the projects that he did with the same importance," Columbus said. "And I can remember going to his studio and he would draw these lists and the lettering would be this big [motions with hand] of all of the shows that he was working on -- SNL, Tonight Show, Ragtime, you know and then he would be doing shows at tiny little venues, 60-seat theaters, and they would be in the same size character and that's the thing that's so great about someone like him."

"To me, I have the best job in the world," he told NBC 10's Gene Valicenti for a profile piece in 2003.

Lee's death came less than a week after the passing of Adrian Hall, Trinity's founding director.

Lee came to Providence to work with Hall in 1967.

"I came and did one show, and did another show, and did another show. Adrian went off to Texas in the summer. He didn't actually say to come back, but he didn't say not to come back. I don't know, it just kind of worked out," Lee recalled in the 2003 interview.

Lee was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2006.

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