Good afternoon! Today I would like to tell you about one of our city's most famous theaters – Volgograd Musical Theater, and about one of its productions – the play "Balzaminov's Marriage".

Volgograd Musical Theater is one of the oldest theaters in our city. A long time ago, it used to be called "Stalingrad Theater of Musical Comedy", then, after that, "Volgograd Theater of Musical Comedy".

The theater's repertory features numerous productions. There are operettas, operas, ballets, vaudevilles, musicals and sparklingly funny musical comedies. One among them is a wonderful musical comedy "Balzaminov's Marriage". It was written by a composer Vladimir Baskin and a poet Yevgeny Muravyov, and is based on two plays by Alexander Ostrovsky: "A Holiday Dream (comes true) Before Dinner" and "Whatever You Go For, You'll Find". In 2019, the authors granted to our musical comedy the rights to the first production of their play, and, thanks to them, it was in our theater that the world premiere took place on November 14, 2020.

The plot of the musical is very similar to that of the plays: a meek daydreamer Misha Balzaminov wants to improve his financial situation by marrying a wealthy woman. A sassy matchmaker Akulina Krasavina is trying to help him. But after their first attempt is unsuccessful, Misha grows disappointed and chooses instead to follow the lead of his friend Lukyan Chebokov, who is scheming to elope with one of the wealthy Pezhonov sisters. To further complicate matters, Misha accidentally ends up in the house of their neighbor, a rich and bored widow Domna Belotelova...

I enjoyed this performance very much. It was incredibly interesting. The stage adaptation, the acting, the music and the costumes are beyond excellence. Many of the songs are absolute earworms that will follow you home well after the end of the play. Ensemble dance scenes are well staged, too. Everything is a pleasure to your eyes, and you almost wish you had more than two of them, to see everything at once: the heroes singing, and the action taking place around them. The idea of combining two plays into one, to seamlessly complete the plot, is also very interesting.

Bright, unusual, cheerful – this production is immensely appealing and will strike a chord with everyone. If you ever come to Volgograd, I recommend going to watch this play! I'm sure you'll enjoy it!