Review: THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG at Moscow Palace Of Youth - It Went Right!

Russian theatre-goers are used to attend Moscow Palace of Youth to watch new musicals mostly produced by the company Stage Entertainment and its ex-CEO Dmitry Bogachev. But that is in the past. Bogachev, now a member of The Broadway League and a CEO of Moscow Broadway, has decided to put aside musical productions in Russia for this season and to produce The Play That Goes Wrong.

Because of a great background in musicals, jokes about Mamma Mia!, Cats or the falling chandelier at the end are so close to our Russian hearts and minds. But the phenomenon of British humor (the first show in Russia in the genre of "theatrical clownery") coming to Moscow made me wonder about the perception of it, especially after I have read spectators' responses to the previews. Some have written that it was "horrible" or not funny at all. I cannot judge other opinions. This is why I am just going to say that The Play That Goes Wrong for me has become one of the funniest and amusingly constructed plays I have ever seen.

Firstly, I would like to mention the creators' work with the pre-show and breaking the fourth wall. When actors are bringing someone from the audience to the stage to help them with the scenery, it helps to build an image of an amateur and not really serious theatre where the audience can behave differently from the way they would have behaved, for example, at Bolshoi. This is, in my opinion, the most essential instrument in breaking the fourth wall during the performance (the scene with Chris trying to find a book).

Secondly, the cast. Oh my god, the cast is just brilliant! It is formed from actors of different theaters and backgrounds: some came from musical productions, others are from Moscow Art Theatre, Theatre of Nations, Vakhtangov Theatre, Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre, Lenkom Theatre, Satyricon Theatre. You get the point. They all are super professional and without their skills, the play would not be this funny. You can only imagine how hard it might be to get things right in acting, such as the timing or the balance between two people you are playing on stage (an actor and their character).

Because of that, there was an uncontrollable laughter the night I saw the show. Everything hit the nail on the head. I have seen opinions on the show that say it consists of jokes for children. But kids laughed just as much as adults did and adults sometimes just simply could not stop.

The show is also becoming a leader in the theatre industry: it is the first play in the country which is being performed 8 times a week. And Moscow Broadway has launched the world's first augmented reality advertising campaign for a theatre production - everything goes wrong now on streets, too.

Some people advise watching parts of The Play on YouTube to get the idea of a humor. But I would suggest to just go for it - and see it live. This way you will be among real actors and laughing people - and, probably, it will not take you much time to get in the mood, relax and enjoy other people's failures on stage.

Photo Credit: netak.show