Because there is an earring: Zhukov made his debut at the Provincial Theater

The frontman of the band "Hands up!" Sergey Zhukov reached the theater stage. The singer not only offered Sergei Bezrukov, artistic director of the Provincial Theater, to stage a musical about the Great Patriotic War, invited his son Angel to play the main role, wrote music and 15 new songs, but also came out to the audience in a cameo so that no one would doubt that he was personally involved in the production. About how the premiere of the play "You are my only one" took place — in the material of Izvestia.

From dream to stage

Sergey Zhukov's songs have been sung by the whole country for decades. But he doesn't stop at music: he produced the TV series VIA Cornflowers and Crybaby with his eldest daughter Nika, and now he's trying his hand at the theater. As Sergey Bezrukov said in a recent interview with Izvestia, Zhukov himself approached him with the idea of a musical performance "You're the only one with me." And he, in turn, considered it a great collaboration.

— This is a huge challenge for me. Imagine: it's one thing to write the song "My Baby", and quite another to write 15 songs and music for the play. And with a symphony orchestra and about the Great Patriotic War. I've been working towards this for six years. I'm very worried," Zhukov confessed to Izvestia.

According to the composer, the play is based on three pillars: faith, hope and love. This is a musical and touching conversation with children and teenagers, primarily about important life orientations: love for mom, Homeland, and all living things in this world.

— The future is impossible without the past. An important task was to show the play to the families, so that after it the children would become interested in the history of their family, find out who fought with them. Or at least they just thought about what it cost these boys to go through the war, how they could eat nothing but melted snow, because there was no food," Zhukov said.

According to the idea of Sergey and the director of the project Nina Chusova, the musical is primarily aimed at the younger generation. This is probably why ten children of different ages are involved in it at once. The youngest, Grigory Druzhinin, has just turned 10 years old.

— I have high demands on both professional adult artists and our teenagers. They were equally susceptible to both the carrot and the stick. We've been actively rehearsing since August. We started at 10 a.m. and finished at 12 a.m. But they courageously went all the way," Nina Chusova confirmed to Izvestia.

Why do I need an order? I'll accept the medal.

"You are my only one" is a journey into a heroic and painful wartime, presented by children to the same children. However, the story begins with the XXI century. May 9th is on the calendar. But for the main character Vanya (Angel Zhukov) This is not Victory Day, but our own holiday. He has noisy friends, loving parents, shelter, food. The kid only dreams of something else — a new iPhone.

The ideas of materialism are firmly entrenched in small minds, so they sing exclusively about "grandmothers", and speak in slang incomprehensible to adults. "What are you kidding me about", "well, this is a cringe", "the olds are spreading the wrong vibe" — and further down the list. Therefore, the gift of his grandparents, the great—grandfather's front-line medal for the feat, becomes so unexpected for Vanya.

This event takes the heroes back to 1941. Another Vanya lives there, the great-grandfather of the modern one. He grows up in the village, takes care of a girl Masha (Maria Parotikova), helps his mother (Vera Shpak) and dreams of becoming a pilot. However, on June 22, things take a different turn. War, partisan detachment, injury, infirmary, captivity — the main characters will have to go through all this.

But the creators did not pick at the wound, they did not show bloody battles, tortures and deaths. Zhukov wanted to tell a story about love and memory. And he did it with his usual ease.

The performance is made up of musical numbers, choreography and complex mise en scene. What is one picture worth in a train carriage, when the sons of the regiment have to act out a dramatic episode, not forgetting to sway in time with the movement of the carriage. It should be noted that the children coped with their task perfectly. And both from the stage and from the music. They were assisted by the staff of the Provincial Theater, known for its wide acting range and versatility.

Music is an independent hero of the production. An attentive viewer can easily hear references to famous Soviet wartime songs in Sergei Zhukov's compositions. But not for the sake of copying, but as inspiration. Most of the songs are lyrical melodies about love for mom and the pain of loss, but there are also more pathetic and uplifting things.

Angel's father is easily discernible. They are similar not only in appearance, but also in the timbre of their voices. Sergei Zhukov himself appears on stage in the form of a front-line artist who came to raise morale at the hospital. It turns out a kind of cameo. In a threadbare tunic, belted with an army belt, he also sings about love. And she does it with her signature simple rhymes.

Obviously, this performance is a declaration of love to his own mother, his wife, who was sitting in the audience, and his children, two of whom also came to support the family. And talking about the Great Patriotic War is the contrast with modernity, which, according to the authors, is necessary for pampered youth.