On the stage of the Russian Army Theater, and however, in the foyer, and in the stylobate, and behind its wings, the premiere of a unique for Russia performance in the genre of sinemotion. The idea of ??the production - as grandiose as the building of the theater itself - carries the audience into the atmosphere of the era. Basically, of course, the Soviet.

As the theater begins with a hanger, the action of the performance is tied directly at the wardrobe, where the first scene takes place. Spectators in a magical whirlwind in September 1940. On the opening of the biggest in the capital theater. The border "stage - auditorium" is actually erased, the actors are working at arm's length, and the audience is directly involved in the whirlwind of bright and dramatic events unfolding around and inside the theater.

This is the torment of the young architects, to whom they set such an ambitious task, not to solve which in the era of Stalinism was equivalent to a death sentence. This is the story of the construction of the building - the most ambitious, the most grandiose, the most monumental.

The roof in the form of a five-pointed star, each tip of which points to a strategically important object, like the Kremlin, a huge building in the style of classicism, majestic colonnades and stars, stars, stars .... They are everywhere - among balusters of stairs, on stucco ceilings, in patterns of plafonds, in the decoration of halls. "Theater Star" ... After participating in the opening, the audience gets to Shakespeare's rehearsals and plunges into a merry backstage life, but, as soon as they are seated in chairs and begin to penetrate the stories of the old dressmaker, they are immediately sent away. Forward, to the shelter! And how else: the war began.

For the theater, as for the country, it was the hardest time. Together with the actors, the audience is going through evacuation to Sverdlovsk, heavy torments of the choice of the repertoire of its legendary leader Alexei Popov. When the war is behind the wall, it's difficult to put gay vaudevilles, but he nevertheless decides on it. It is here that Popov puts "Long ago" - the famous "Hussar ballad". People need laughter, songs, joys, which now are not in ordinary life, where only hunger and death. The performance was an unprecedented success, and then entered the Moscow repertoire of the theater.

But it's all after, after the war, and now the actors are chasing the audience into the next suite of rooms, halls and passages as if everything around really is collapsing, bullets are whistling and bombs are rushing. The atmosphere of wartime was transmitted amazingly accurately: you want to smoke, eat boiled potatoes and drink alcohol, cry over the wounded soldiers and laugh at the jokes of the theater front brigade. Spectators mixed with the actors basking in an impromptu fire, shaking in a freight car and noticing how instead of a refined girlfriend next to you is a chilled actress in a shabby frontcoat, which tightens a sad song, and then disappears completely into oblivion.

Several decades of theater life - from the past to the present and the future - viewers pass for 1720 steps. At least, this is the number of steps called authors. The spectator himself, of course, does not consider steps, and even under his feet he can not always look. When the legend revives around, you remember the arithmetic in the last place.

In the final, the audience finds themselves on the main stage of the theater. This is a special, incomparable feeling when you look at the hall from the stage, and not vice versa. On the skin, goosebumps, in the throat intercepts, and in the meantime, to the sound of music from the play "Teacher of Dances", the theater completes the narrative of itself. Theater-history, theater-legend, theater-star.