In the 1950s, Pilbrow entered the Central School of Speech and Drama in London as a stage management student after serving two years in the Royal Air Force.
[citation needed] In 1957, Pilbrow co-founded the lighting rental company Theatre Projects with Bryan Kendall, which expanded to include a production company in 1963 to produce and mount the London production of Stephen Sondheim’s first musical A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum with set designer Tony Walton and American Producer Hal Prince.
A year later, his second projection assignment on Broadway with Golden Boy allowed him to work with lighting designer Tharon Musser.
A later book, Stage Lighting Design: The Art, The Craft, The Life, was published in 1997, with a second edition releasing in September 2008.
Pillbrow was the lighting designer for the 2008 Jill Santoriello musical adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway.