Set model for the Broadway production of Cabaret

The legendary Broadway producer and director Harold “Hal” Prince cited the impact of Boris Aronson’s set models on his own work in his autobiography, Sense of Occasion. He wrote of Aronson’s model for Cabaret, which Prince produced and directed: “Boris surprised me with a mirror—a trapezoid, corresponding to the shape of the stage floor—suspended above the center of the stage and slanted to reflect the audience.” Cabaret is set in World War II-era Germany as Nazism rises, with the character of the Emcee, Prince maintains, symbolizing Germany as it loses its way under Hitler. The show itself is a metaphor for the ease with which any society may slip into committing atrocities against those considered “Other”; the set emphasizes the point by reflecting the audience back at themselves at both the start and end of the musical. The original Broadway production opened in 1966 at the Broadhurst Theatre, transferring to the Imperial Theatre and then the Broadway Theatre, before closing in 1969 after 1,166 performances.