Pop-Up Installation at NYPL for the Performing Arts

Broadway is back, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is hosting a pop-up installation that pays homage to the iconic sets of Broadway shows. The installation, Brick by Brick, Putting It Together: The Broadway Set Miniatures of Henry Lee, showcases artist Henry Lee’s intricate, miniature reimagining’s of set designs built with LEGO bricks.

The exhibit will feature six set models of the Broadway musicals Company, Follies, Evita, The Phantom of the Opera, A Little Night Music, and Sweeney Todd. The models will be complemented with archival materials from the Library’s collections related to each show. Boris Aronson's original Broadway and touring set models for Company, A Little Night Music, and Follies will all be displayed next to Lee's renditions. The installation will also feature video footage from the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), and set pieces from Evita and Sweeney Todd, as seen in Prince of Broadway. Photographs from the Billy Rose Theatre Division's unparalleled photography collection will also illustrate how the sets came to life on stage. Many of the archival materials on display will give visitors an opportunity to see selections from In the Company of Harold Prince: Broadway Producer, Director, Collaborator, which the Library closed early in March of 2020 due to the pandemic. 

Brick by Brick, Putting It Together: The Broadway Set Miniatures of Henry Lee is opened on Friday, September 17 and is on display through Friday, December 10 in the Shelby Cullom Davis Museum of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Click here to learn more.

Photo credit: Henry Lee - Evita