One Hundred Thousand and One: a musical about Scheherazade and Sultan staged in Moscow

The MDM Theater hosted the premiere of a new musical The Last Tale. Producer Dmitry Bogachev, who introduced Russian audiences to "The Phantom of the Opera", "Beauty and the Beast", Mamma Mia! and "Chess", this time offered the audience to be transported to the fairy-tale East. The role of Scheherazade is played by Anastasia Stotskaya. Even before the premiere, the new production has broken sales records: the performance is already planning to come to 100 thousand spectators. "Izvestia" visited the premiere and experienced a complete immersion in the fairy tale.

Fairytale matriarchy

The premiere of "The Last Fairy Tale" was scheduled for 19:00, but more than an hour fans of the genre gathered on the stairs of the MDM Theater, anticipating the spectacle. In the invitations there was a dress code of "evening dresses inspired by the fairy-tale East". Therefore, in the foyer one could meet the most incredible beauties in luxurious toilets and jewelry. They were matched by men as well. Guests at the entrance were given colorful programs and offered to treat themselves to oriental sweets.

Among the first spectators were found: actress Alexandra Ursulyak, trainer Edgard Zapashny, TV host Boris Hook, hockey legend Vladislav Tretiak, head of MTS Live Mikhail Minin, composers Maxim Dunayevsky and Arkady Ukupnik, directors Andrei Zhitinkin and Nina Chusova.

"The Last Tale" is the most ambitious project of the theater company "Broadway Moscow" for the last ten years, the preparation took three years. In the story, a pair of lovers, Zhenya (Julia Dovganishina) and Max (Pavel Lyovkin), quarrel because they are rarely together. But at some point, Jinn (Alexander Babik), a slave of a lamp brought from Turkey, intervenes in their relationship. He takes the lovers to a fairy tale, where Zhenya becomes the bride of Sultan Suleiman (Andrei Shkoldychenko). The love of the main characters, experiencing a crisis of relationships, will be tested for strength. Among miracles and adventures they will meet Aladdin (Mikhail Pyatikopov), Ali Baba (Andrey Birin) and other heroes of oriental fairy tales, rediscover their feelings and true desires. And they will also learn that the Genie is an enchanted Sinbad, and the prince of thieves Aladdin moonlights as a cab driver on a magic carpet.

Scheherazade no longer wants to tell fairy tales, because Sultan Suleiman, to whom she 1001 nights described the wonders, did not appreciate her efforts. Now the storyteller teaches girls to value themselves. "Only sincere love for ourselves makes us irresistible," - convinces the pretty girls Shaherazade. And forty robbers do not want to do black deeds anymore and dream of the stage. They already have their own musical band.

- There is a lot of humor and irony in the musical, through which modern heroes perceive the world of magic, - said the director Anna Shevchuk. - But the magic fairy tale is also imbued with poetry, which is largely revealed thanks to the poignant music by Evgeny Zagot, poetic texts by Alexei Ivashchenko, amazing scenography by Maxim Obrezkov, magical light by Alexander Sivaev and video scenographer Asya Mukhina, stylish and fascinating choreography by Irina Kashuba, and colorful costumes by Yasi Rafikova.

A flying carpet from Belgium

The MDM stage is not enough for the staging team, and the action moves to the hall. A caravan of Bedouins dressed in white and carrying a giant camel puppet passes through it. Numerous technically complex effects filled the production with real magic. There had to be miracles in every scene. Artists, lighting technicians, composer, choreographers were literally set a task: to create little sparks of magic from each workshop.

When coming up with the fairytale space, the production designer Maxim Obrezkov was inspired by the Museum of the Future in Dubai, the building of which is decorated with Arabic script. Since the fairy tale is oriental, calligraphy became a wonderful addition to the design. The whole decoration is painted with mysterious writings, but connoisseurs of Persian languages should not look for content in them. The main thing is that it looks beautiful.

- This play is unrealized desires. It's as if we wanted to get into a fairy tale, but in the end we end up in several at once," Maxim Obrezkov admitted to Izvestia. - I was born in the Youth Theater, my dad and mom are actors. And for me fairy tales are my element. We don't take the audience back in time. A fairy tale must be modern. We tell it in a language that would be understandable now. The main thing is that we let the child realize what is good and what is bad. Everything that has been invented in the technical equipment of the stage, light, mechanics and sound, is used in "The Last Fairy Tale".

As the technical director of the play jokes, there is not even five centimeters of the stage that would not be used.

- Miracles happen every now and then in our story, - said the producer of the musical Dmitry Bogachev. - The main characters go towards their dreams on a magic carpet, which was designed and manufactured for us by a Belgian company. With an exact imitation of the aerodynamics of flying and fluttering fabric. In stage technology, this technique is a real know-how, which is kept secret.

The work of the artists is admirable. It took 1000 pieces of mirrors to dress the Genie. The total weight of the character's outfits reaches 10 kilograms. The costumes were sewn in 14 workshops simultaneously. Outfits of robbers from the army of Ali Baba, with voluminous blue trousers and the same puffy sleeves of camisoles, it would seem, created only for beauty, to admire from afar. But no, dashing people are dancing their numbers in them. For the performance was made 52 wigs and 12 hairpieces, most of them made by hand by specialists of the make-up shop

Oriental beauties from the entourage of Shaherazade amaze with the way the silk fabrics now and then expose pieces of the body. Incredibly beautiful costumes at the storyteller herself. Anastasia Stotskaya, who changed several outfits during the performance, plays the role of Scheherazade. Besides her, Julia Iva and Julia Churakova will appear in this role. Unique costumes were made for each of them, and even the corset - the only recurring element in their outfits - was molded in the workshop differently for each artist.

Anastasia Stotskaya is one of the strongest vocalists in the show. And when she dances to Tarkan's song Hepsi Senim Mi (Şıkıdım), the hall bursts into applause. The author of the song, a Turkish woman Sezen Aksu, is also listed in the program. The rest of the music for "The Last Tale" was composed by Yevgeny Zagot. The musical's artistic director is the Pushkin Theater's artistic director Evgeny Pisarev, a well-known master of musical productions.

Record demand for the fairy tale

Even before the premiere, the musical "The Last Fairy Tale" has set a new record for the theater Moscow. Almost all tickets for the first two months of daily shows at the MDM Theater have already been sold.

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- By the date of the first public show, December 8, will be sold almost 100 thousand. tickets, which has never happened to any Russian theater production in history, including the legendary "Phantom of the Opera" and the record-breaking musical "Don't Be Afraid of Anything, I'm With You!" (1.2 million viewers in two years)," producer Dmitry Bogachev admitted to Izvestia. (1.2 million viewers in two years)," producer Dmitry Bogachev admitted to Izvestia. - We expected high demand, but we did not realize that December and January tickets for The Last Tale would become such a popular and welcome New Year's gift - and for audiences of all ages. Already now, in the first days of December, we had to put on sale the performances of February and March. And this is with daily full houses eight times a week in the 1800-seat auditorium. As far as I know, such phenomenal results of New Year sales did not reach even "The Nutcracker" at the Bolshoi Theater.

The project was created together with the co-producer of "MTS Live" and "Yandex Afisha". According to the creators, the record budget of the production twice exceeds the production budgets of the company's two previous projects "Chess" and "Don't be afraid of anything, I'm with you!".

- This is our third joint project, and let's not hide - after five years of close partnership, we expected a good start in sales," Yanina Tataritskaya, General Producer of MTS Live, told Izvestia. - We truly believe in the musical genre and know how much the Russian audience has grown to love it. The Broadway Moscow team has traveled a long and thorny road in the development of the genre, and now we have a unique opportunity to work on the scale of productions, investments, colorfulness and amazing technologies. We are proud to talk about this production and the directing and production team.

Single tickets are still available for December performances now. The expectations of the first spectators from the new musical were justified. They did not let the artists off the stage for a long time, chanting "Bravo!"