In Moscow on 20 and 21 November the famous composer Alexander Zhurbin and great team of artists will present the premiere of the first detective musical in the world, "the Mousetrap", based on the play by Agatha Christie. Leading roles are played by Alexei Goman, Vlad Topalov, Irina Lindt, and Anna Bolshova.
Alexander Zhurbin, composer
This project is unusual in many ways. The singularity of it, first of all, is that it was written 10 years ago, this is not a new product, and it was shown in several Russian cities, and it was quite successful, but I could not manage to hold the performance in Moscow - for various reasons. Some theaters took responsibility for this performance, some were frustrated, some things did not go, and only now have we finally arrived at the premiere. This premiere also has a long history: Irina Hutsieva and I have probably been talking about it for two or three years and had some pre-release versions of the play. They were almost amateur, because there were no special decorations, no special costumes - everything was done in a hurry, because there was no funding, and there were different producers who came and went, and in the end I realized that the only salvation for me was to become the producer of the project and to take the matter into my own hands. I am a very inexperienced producer, although for ten years I have directed a theater in New York City - few of you know this, probably because you have never been in New York, but for ten years I had my own theater, I was its owner, I was everything there. It was my own theater. By the way, great actors like Yelena Solovei played there. But in Russia, it was not so easy. I want to say that this is the first attempt by Russia to put on a musical of the so-called off-Broadway format. I’ll very briefly explain. You know that there are Broadway musicals. A Broadway musical is a large musical, and all musicals staged in Russia, like "Nord-Ost", "Notre Dame", "Metro", "Count Orlov", "Mamma Mia!", "Cats", are Broadway musicals. These are big stage musicals, with lots of artists, with a large number of spectators - not less than 1500, etc. These are Broadway musicals, and for some reason in Russia this was the most enduring form,. But probably few know that there is another form of musical - a musical, where there is no large choir or corps de ballet, but there is a small group of artists - in this musical, for example, there are 8 people, but there could be 5 people, or even 3 people. This form exists in America and in England, and these musicals also have great success. They are, of course, far more relevant to the art of the theater, because in blockbusters and huge musicals people usually focus on powerful stage solutions for some incredible light shows, some effects, someone flies, someone takes off. This is really cool, and people come to see the spectacle. But if you ask them, who now plays the role - it does not matter, someone plays, we have not even seen who, because it does not matter, they're all in make-up and costumes, and sometimes it does not matter who is playing. In this musical, it's different: here, on the contrary, you can see and hear each artist, and each artist demonstrates his personality. In this sense, this is much closer to the Russian theater, psychological theater, where the actor is most important. But this is still a musical, and it follows the laws of the genre. I hope that you will come to the premiere or some other show and see this. Now I want to tell you another secret that will happen after these premieres: we conceived this show in the form of so-called "dinner theater." Again, this will be the first time in Russia, and even, in my opinion, people do not really understand what it is. I will now explain this. "Dinner theater" - it is clear, this is a dining theater, this is "theater with dinner." Of course, in Russia, there are all kinds of variety shows, cabarets, where people sit, drink, snack, and it's time for artists to dance, sing, juggle, etc. Russia is full of night clubs, karaoke, etc. But this is quite a different thing. What is "dinner theater"? I will speak about how it is done in America, I have attended these shows several times. People come in and sit down. Some snacks and a glass of wine are pre-ordered. They drink a glass of wine, eat this appetizer, and the first act of the play begins. Waiters stop walking, banging forks and eating also stops. In this silence people watch the first act of the play. The first act ends, the lights come up, the waiters come and bring a hot dish and a glass of wine again. There is a half-hour break, people communicate and discuss what they saw. After that, the lights go down again, again there is silence, the performers play the second act. After the end of the second act and the applause, communication with the actors who are sitting in the room is possible, it is possible even to dance. This is a family or friendly evening. It is very nice to come to this theater in any company. In Russia nobody has tried to do this. We will try to do it and see what we get. Now I’ll speak about those who are involved in the production. First, I’ll speak about Alexei Goman, our famous singer, a very good singer, one might say - a pop singer and performer of popular songs. And he really is a people's artist. If you remember, there was a contest "People's Artist", he was the winner of this contest, and it's really wonderful performances of a variety of songs. We had the idea to invite him to play a major role in the musical.
Irina Hutsieva, director of the musical
We're trying to pay attention to every detail of the actions of our actors on the stage and to the result. I think the most interesting thing in this musical is the characters. It is not that there is the most important thing here: singing, music, acting, classic story, plastic, choreography - each of these components takes a lot of energy and a lot of time. But we love doing it. Basically, we are doing it now, because the premiere will take place in a few days, so we cannot say that everything is ready. As always, for a long time you cook a pie, and in the end it is still not yet ready. Now is the most difficult stage, when you need to believe in yourself, to believe that everything will be a success. But with such an optimistic general producer as Alexander, we will do it - he lifts our morale, and we try to match the fact that all that we are going to produce is not typical for a musical, it is not the common things usually occur in musicals. We hope that it will be an interesting thing, maybe stylish, we hope for this very much. It was hard at first to choose the style of what we are going to show, because making a simple detective story now looks quite funny. Agatha Christie’s works are classic for detective fiction, and I wanted to find a new approach to this world-famous play, which has entered the Guinness Book of Records. We wanted to do something different. And we tried to make this an ironic musical in which the lines would remain very lyrical, very grotesque, maybe sometimes touching the hearts and souls of people sitting in the hall. In general, we want to make you feel interest, to touch you in some sense which will produce a response and will not be just a show.
Alexei Goman, singer
Please come to see the musical. There are moments to cry and to laugh there. I only have my personal attitude to this matter. Everyone calls this a musical, for me it is still a musical show, because, if we talk about my role, I sing as much as I speak. For me it is the first experience, I really like everything, and the people are nice - I even tried to get angry a couple of times in rehearsal at someone, but this did not work, everyone is very nice. This performance is made with love, and songs and music are very good. I say this not because Alexander is here, I just would not have agreed if there was nothing to sing there, for example. You must see this. It's interesting, it's very hospitable in the best sense of the word - you know, when you come to the theater, and the atmosphere is so relaxing that you are ready to wear slippers and a robe and watch all of this action. Come on, this is the most important thing to say. I have started with this, and I finish with this.
