Nord-Ost (musical)

In 1998, Georgy Vasilyev and Alexey Ivashchenko began work on the creation of the musical “Nord-Ost”. When creating this large-scale show, they took advantage of the technologies that are successfully used in setting up such shows on Broadway ( USA ) and West End ( United Kingdom ). In particular, Vasiliev and Ivashchenko completed internships in the company of Cameron Macintosh, to whom modern culture is obliged to produce such musical theater hits like Les Miserables , Cats , Phantom of The Opera (these and many other musicals with great success roll in dozens of countries around the world from the stage for 20 years or more).

According to all forecasts , a similar fate awaited the first Russian experience of setting a show of this level - the musical “Nord-Ost”. For the first time in Russia, an entire theater was specially reconstructed for the sole performance ( DK GPP-1 , Moscow, Melnikova str., 7). Large-scale scenery was embedded in the foundation of the building, which made it a theater of one performance.
Western principle - “the action must be super-spectacular” was transferred to Russian soil. The moving sets created by the artist Zinovy ​​Margolin , along with the actors, every evening (for the first time in the history of the Russian theater, the play went on a daily basis, like a Broadway show) were honored with applause: bomber plane landing directly on the scene and a turning circle of the scene opened by ice hummocks, in the center of which arose the nose of the schooner, which found its last pier in the Arctic waters .
All this, as well as professionalism performers (actor Yuri Mazikhin won one of the most prestigious national theatrical awards “ Golden Mask ” for playing the role of Nikolai Antonovich in the musical) and, of course, the original source - Veniamin Kaverin’s novel “Two Captains”, beloved by many generations Russians played on the success of the play.

The premiere took place on October 19, 2001 . However, force majeure intervened in the rainbow plans of distributors (it was assumed that the performance would go in Moscow for at least three years). After a year of daily hire of “Nord-Ost”, the performance and about a thousand of its spectators became hostages of the gang of Chechen extremists - see the terrorist act on Dubrovka . This tragedy became associated with the name of the performance, and the subsequent restoration of the performance in the same place - in the theater center on Dubrovka - turned out to be a failure. May 10, 2003 the last show of the stationary version of the musical took place.

More successful tour version of the play created a year later. Due to the reduction in the children's composition of the tour group, the numbers Flea Market and School have undergone a noticeable processing. New mobile scenery by Zinovy ​​Margolin was created (including the famous bomber, the scenery was occupied by eight 40-foot trucks), and the residents of Nizhny Novgorod and Tyumen could see the performance. After the scandal connected with the failure to provide Nord-Ost with the venue in St. Petersburg (where the premiere of the mobile version of the musical was originally to be held), the main sponsors terminated the contracts with the producers of the musical. Without sponsorship support, the rental of such a powerful show turned out to be impossible.

In 2005 , a complete audio version of the performance was played.

Even after the cessation of shows, the musical continues to take part in festivals and forums (International Musical Theater Symposium under the auspices of the International Theater Institute of UNESCO, Munich, December 2004 ; the first Russian musical festival “The Musical Heart of the Theater ”, Moscow, February 2006 ) At the beginning of 2006, Nord-Ost authors Georgy Vasilyev and Aleksey Ivashchenko were awarded the Rolan Bykov Theater Prize “The Star of Captivating Happiness”.

From 2004 to the present, the authors are looking for an opportunity to revive the musical on the Russian stage and do not lose faith in the “bright future” of their creation.

October 16, 2011 during the celebration of the upcoming tenth anniversary from the day of the first show of the performance, the video version of the tour version of the musical was premiered on DVD ^[2] .

In July 2012, selected arias from the musical were performed by artists of the first composition at the Platform festival on the Mastryukovsky lakes in the Samara region ^[3] .

By 2014, the installation of the video recording was completed, which is based on the stationary version of the musical - mostly the 400th performance, as well as the 399th and 401st, played in May 2003 . The recording was broadcast on April 13-14 and April 20-21, 2014 in the framework of the online film festival “ Double of the engine @ ” held on the website of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta ^{[4] [5]} .

Prologue

1913
In the Arctic, the expedition of captain Tatarinov dies on the schooner "Holy Mary." In his farewell letter, the captain curses Nicholas, the culprit of all his troubles.

Act I

Arkhangelsk, 1916
Silent boy Sanya Grigoriev becomes a witness to the murder of the postman. Sanya’s father is unjustly accused of a crime, and Sanya cannot tell people the truth. He still does not know that he sees his father for the last time. The boy has a bag with letters that the postman did not have time to carry. Maria Vasilyevna Tatarinova, not waiting for her husband to return from the expedition and not having any news from him, leaves Arkhangelsk with her mother Nina Kapitonovna and her little daughter Katya. Captain Nikolai Antonovich’s brother takes them to Moscow . Maria Vasilyevna says goodbye to Ivan Pavlovich Korablyov, a devoted friend of the Tatarinov family. On the empty pier Korablev meets crying Sanya. Penetrating compassion for the boy, he teaches Sanya how to overcome dumbness by will and patience.

Moscow, 1920-1921
In a country of devastation and chaos of civil war . Wandering through different cities, the bereaved Sanya does not part with his relic - the bag of the Archangel postman. Thanks to his incredible stubbornness, he, following the advice of Korablev, finds his voice. A happy occasion brings Sanya and Korableva in Moscow. Korablev, who now works as a teacher, persuades the headmaster of the communal school, Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov, to enroll an orphaned orphan in it. Sanya has new comrades: Valka Zhukov and Romashov. One day he meets the director's niece, Katya Tatarinova, a bold and resolute girl. She stands up for Sanya, through whose fault the Tatarinovs lactometer crashed. Korablev asks for the hand of Maria Vasilyevna, but receives a refusal - the widow of the captain still cannot accept the loss of her beloved husband. Nikolai Antonovich, who himself is not indifferent to Maria Vasilyevna, provokes a quarrel and expels Korablev, and at the same time, Sanya, who is present at the same time. Sanya and Nikolai Antonovich become enemies.

Moscow, 1928
The matured Katya and Sanya are in love with each other. On New Year's Eve, Katya invites friends to visit her. From her story about her father, Sanya suddenly realizes that his postman’s bag contains a farewell letter from Captain Tatarinov. Wanting to curry favor with Nikolai Antonovich, Romashov, at his request, manages to steal part of the letter. However, Sanya remembers the text by heart. He reproduces from memory the missing page, where the captain blames the death of the expedition of his brother Nicholas. For Maria Vasilyevna, this is a terrible blow, because quite recently, succumbing to the long-term siege of Nikolai Antonovich, she became his wife. The unbearable thought that she betrayed her love leads Maria Vasilyevna to suicide . Nikolai Antonovich accuses Sanya of the death of Maria Vasilyevna. Sanya is looking for understanding from Katya, but she also turns away from him. He is in despair: in childhood, Sanya lost his father because he could not speak, and now the truth expressed has ruined Katina's mother. And yet, after a hard internal struggle, Sanya decides not to give up. He vows to find traces of the lost expedition. He will never be mute again.

Act Two

Moscow, 1938
Sanya Grigoriev became a pilot. He dreams of making an arctic flight along the route of the missing expedition of Captain Tatarinov. Enlisting the support of the famous pilot Valery Chkalov , Sanya comes to Moscow to obtain permission from the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route . Old friend Valka Zhukov insists that Sanya meet Katya, whom he still loves, but has not seen for nine years. Sanin makes a phone call to Katya at the time of a decisive explanation with Romashov, who once again makes her an offer. Katya, without saying a word, runs away from the apartment. By blackmailing Nikolai Antonovich with the ill-fated page of the letter, Romashov demands that he help him neutralize a rival who has suddenly appeared. Sanya and Katya roam together in the evening city, but bitter memories prevent them from finding the right words. In addition, because of the intrigues of Romashov and Nikolai Antonovich, Glavsevmorput refuses the pilot Grigoriev to organize a search raid in the Arctic. Frustrated, Sanya is forced to leave Moscow with nothing. However, at the last minute Katya appears at the station. The long-awaited declaration of love still happens. Katya tells Sana that she decided to leave her uncle for Leningrad .

Leningrad, 1942
The war again separates Katya and Sanya. Katya, along with her grandmother, remains in besieged Leningrad. Romashov finds her there, half-dead, and tells how he met Sanya, seriously wounded, in the sanitary echelon, how the train was shot by German tanks , how he tried to save Sanya, but could not. Katya expels Romashov, accusing him of treason.

Romashov really lied. He threw Sanya in the forest, deciding that he would not survive. In hysterical Romashov re-experiences all the circumstances of their meeting and acknowledges his defeat. Hope returns to Kate. She feels that Sanya is alive, and penetrates the belief that her love will save him. But she herself remains alone: ​​unable to endure the blockade of deprivation, her grandmother dies. Katya's strength is also running out.

Moscow, 1942
Contrary to all of Sana'a manages to survive In search of Katya, he finds himself in a badly dilapidated Tatarinov apartment. The door opens Romashov. The former owner of this house, Nikolai Antonovich, is broken by paralysis. He has become dumb. Here Sanya awaits terrible news. Romashov informs him that Katya died in Leningrad.

Extreme North, 1943
Captain Grigoriev fiercely fights in polar aviation . After a victorious air battle, his plane makes an emergency landing at the Nenets camp. Among the items brought by them for the repair of the aircraft, Sanya finds a hook from the schooner “St. Maria". He does not believe his eyes. It turns out that the elders saw Captain Tatarinov before his death and even saved the ship's log . Sanina's cherished dream has come true, but this does not make him happy now that Katya is no more. Fortunately, he is mistaken: Katya is alive! Despite everything, she finds her beloved in a polar military town, on the very edge of the earth. They are together again. They are happy. Katya, with a sinking heart, opens the ship's log, and the memory of the past envelops her and Sanya with a fantastic vision.

• Katya Tatarinova - Ekaterina Guseva
• Sanya Grigoriev - Andrei Bogdanov
• Romashov - Oleg Kuznetsov
• Marya Vasilievna - Irina Lindt
• Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov - Yuri Mazikhin
• Ivan Pavlovich Korablev - Peter Markin
• Nina Kapitonovna - Elena Kazarinova
• Valka Zhukov - Alexey Rossoshansky
• Kira - Julia Sviridov

David Tukhmanov , who saw almost all the musicals shown in Russia, rated them from a musical point of view not high, and Nord-Ost as one of the weakest:

As a musician, I see that the musical basis of these performances is much weaker than staged. The direction involves very active creative forces, and the action creates a very inventive and spectacular. However, it is not by chance that musicals appear a lot, but rarely which one becomes a hit. <...> I don’t argue, this is normal, good music, but without any particular brightness. And in the domestic musicals - “Nord-Ost” and “ 12 chairs ” - the music is of an applied nature and does not have an independent meaning ^[6] .

Critic Valery Kichin praised the musical very highly:

It is also the birthday of new composers of great stage form - Ivashchenko and Vasiliev. Without imitating Webber in any way, they took as a basis the traditions of Dunaevsky and Milutin, as well as the Russian bard song, the Russian romance. It is the birthday of theater directors who confidently own both the stage space and the conventionality of the genre, which I still have not given in - Ivashchenko and Vasilyev. It doesn't happen at all, but it happened. The performance was plotted intensely, it has strong and vivid characters, there are musical dialogues in it, which you watch as a detective story. There are several absolute masterpieces in it - children's scenes, a communal apartment, an ingeniously invented octet (!) Of four (!) Heroes, a quintet of typists "My country is wide." It has a bold set design by Zinovy ​​Margolin and original dances by Elena Bogdanovich. It has great acting work. ^[7]

Philologist Mark Lipovetsky put “Nord-Ost” in a number of novels, films, TV series, which marked the aesthetic shift towards social realism , which began in the second half of the 1990s “under the slogan“ old songs about the main things ” ^[8] .

• Official site
• An article in the newspaper "Izvestia"
• Links to sites about Nord-Ost