Premiere!

The musical «Vinyl»

The musical «Vinyl» by the composer Evgeny Zagot at the Big Stage of the Music Hall Theatre takes the audience to the idyllic era of ‘stilyagi’ (Soviet hipsters) and the opposing Soviet society.

The play is set on the eve of the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students, which opened in Moscow in July 1957. Shock, astonishment, euphoria – these are the terms in which witnesses described what was happening on the streets of Moscow that summer. The metropolitan youth, living behind the Iron Curtain, got a chance to freely talk to their foreign peers, which led to far-reaching consequences. Soviet people took a different look at fashion, style, demeanour, and way of life.

In the play’s story, the band VIA Vinyl is not permitted to participate in the concert programme of the festival. The ensemble plays trendy jazz and rock and roll, that is, musical genres banned in the USSR. But no challenges can stop young talented guys on their way to artistic self-expression and search for their vocation. A romantic love story, spy secrets and intrigues, vibrant costumes and lively dances, an atmosphere of freedom and celebration — thanks to this entire sparkling cocktail of feelings and music, the spectators will enjoy a real feast of life.

The stage director of the production, Susanna Tsiryuk, who has successful experience of working at musical theatres of Minsk, Novosibirsk, Rostov, Irkutsk, let to ensure immersion into an atmosphere of nostalgia and a bright picture in the style of the best cinematic solutions at the same time. The stage of the theatre featured spectacular scenery in the form of a Zvezda radiogram made in 1953. The atmosphere of an incredible celebration that dominated the streets of the capital during the World Festival of Youth and Students is enhanced with video content tailored for the performance as well as with newsreel footage of that period.

The musical tells about collision between two worlds, that is, young talented stilyagi composing and singing new exhilarating music, and model Soviet citizens, Komsomol members, who always strictly adhere to all rules. The confrontation between the heroes is reflected not only in songs and lines, but also in the clothing style. The costume design concept is based on the ‘colour geography’ principle: each social group is distinguished by its own colour palette. Moscow inhabitants — residents of communal flats, passers-by, young pioneers —wear grey tones with added red shades; secret agents appear in black, and a range of brown and beige colours has been chosen for foreign journalists that arrived at the World Festival of Youth and Students. The most spectacular, vibrant, and memorable costumes in the style of Dior's New Look, as if from the cover of a foreign fashion magazine, are tried on by stilyagi, the musical’s key characters.

The musical «Vinyl» at the Big Stage of the Music Hall Theatre is a colourful and fascinating musical story about first love, search for self, creativity, freedom, and young courage to the strains of catching melodies, which will strike a chord with everyone.