There are about 250 (!) theaters in the Russian capital. We highlight the best-known ones below.

Bolshoi Theater

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The country’s best-known theater dates back to March 28, 1776, when Catherine the Great appointed Prince Urusov master of theatrical performances in Moscow. Although plays were initially performed on its stage, over time, they gave way to opera and ballet. Legendary choreographer Marius Petipa staged his only Moscow ballet – ‘Don Quixote’ – at the Bolshoi. ‘Swan Lake’ also premiered on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater.

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At the beginning of the 20th century, composer Sergei Rachmaninoff was in charge of the Bolshoi Opera, while outstanding artists Konstantin Korovin and Aleksandr Golovin made set designs for its productions. In different periods, singers Feodor Chaliapin, Elena Obraztsova, Galina Vishnevskaya and Zurab Sotkilava sang in the Bolshoi company. Ballet dancers like Olga Lepeshinskaya, Galina Ulanova, Maya Plisetskaya, Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maximova also dazzled audiences from its stage.

Today, the Bolshoi Theater repertoire includes classical and contemporary operas and ballets staged by Russian, as well as Western stars.

Maly Theater

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One of the oldest Russian theaters, the Maly Theater (‘Small Theater’) has been in existence since 1756: Students were the first actors at the theater under the auspices of Moscow University. In 1824, the company moved into a building on Petrovskaya (now – Teatralnaya) Square: Because of its small size, the mansion was dubbed the ‘Maly’, compared with the ‘Bolshoi’ (‘large’) next door. During Pushkin’s lifetime, three of his works – ‘The Fountain of Bakhchisarai’, ‘The Gypsies’ and ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’ – were performed there and Nikolai Gogol himself suggested that ‘The Government Inspector’ should be staged there.

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But, it was Alexander Ostrovsky who became the main author associated with the theater: All of his 48 plays were put on at the ‘Maly’, he wrote specially for it and personally read his plays to the troupe. The traditions of classical realist theater are preserved to this day with mostly classic costume dramas being performed.

Chekhov Moscow Art Theater

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The historic meeting of theater director Konstantin Stanislavsky and playwright Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in the ‘Slavyansky Bazar’ restaurant in the Summer of 1897 laid the foundations and principles of the Art Theater. Its first production was Aleksey Tolstoy’s ‘Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich’. In 1902, the theater moved into a building in Kamergersky Lane, where it remains to this day. Nicholas Roerich, Boris Kustodiev and Alexandre Benois made set designs for its performances and two of the theater’s main authors were Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky.

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Nowadays, the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater (Russian abbreviation: ‘MKhT’) is a flagship for new drama productions of plays by classic and contemporary authors and it is pretty much sold out every season.

Mark Zakharov Moscow State Lenkom Theater

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It grew out of the Theater for Working Youth founded in 1927. The Lenkom (Lenin Komsomol) Theater got second wind in the early 1960s, when Anatoly Efros became its artistic director: Young actors like Aleksandr Zbruyev, Valentin Gaft, Aleksandr Shirvindt and Olga Yakovleva performed in plays by Viktor Rozov, Edvard Radzinsky and Mikhail Bulgakov.

Theatrical costumes in the dressing room of actress Inna Churikova at the Lenkom Mark Zakharov Theater.

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The era of Lenkom as its audiences know it today began in 1973, when Mark Zakharov took over at the theater. His productions of ‘Till Eulenspiegel’ and ‘The Star and Death of Joaquin Murrieta’ became hits, while the rock opera ‘Juno and Avos’ remains in its repertoire to this day.

Sovremennik

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The theater was founded during the Khrushchev thaw by alumni of the Moscow Art Theater studio school – the likes of Oleg Yefremov, Galina Volchek, Igor Kvasha, Oleg Tabakov, Yevgeny Yevstigneyev and others. They wanted to develop the principles laid down by Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko and chose plays by contemporary dramatists.

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Their first production was ‘Forever Alive’, a play by Viktor Rozov. The theater continues to adhere to the same principles today – some of the most experimental and avant-garde plays in Russia are put on there.

Stanislavsky & Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater

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The founders of the Moscow Art Theater believed that opera should not be a “costume concert”, but, instead, have a strong dramatic impact and audiences should believe in, and empathize with, events on stage just as with a conventional play. Being one of the first director-led opera theaters in the world, the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater has been in existence since December 1918, when the Opera Studio headed by Stanislavsky was founded under the auspices of the Bolshoi Theater. In 1939, it was joined by a ballet company. Among those who have worked there were Vsevolod Meyerhold, Peter Stein, Vladimir Burmeister, Nacho Duato, John Neumeier and Angelin Preljocaj.

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Alongside ‘Norma’, ‘Aida’, ‘La Bayadère’ and ‘Giselle’, the repertoire includes one-act ballets by contemporary choreographers, the operettas ‘Winter Evening in Chamonix’ and ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and also rarities like Luigi Cherubini’s ‘Medea’. Its stars include Hibla Gerzmava, Georgi Smilevsky, Natalia Somova and Oxana Kardash.

Theater of Nations

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The red brick building in Petrovsky Lane is a real celebrity among theaters. Built in pseudo-Russian style, the mansion was where the private Korsh Theater opened in 1885. It hosted the first production of Chekhov’s ‘Ivanov’. In 2006, actor Yevgeny Mironov took over at the theater: Every play is staged as a separate production with invited directors and actors.

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Experimental productions are put on at the theater’s ‘Small Stage’ and its ‘New Space’. Its repertoire embraces contemporary readings of the classics from Shakespeare to Bulgakov, Tolstoy and Ostrovsky and also contemporary plays.

Stanislavsky Electrotheater

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Everything in this theater is about experimentation. The theater is the successor to Moscow’s Stanislavsky Drama Theater on Tverskaya Street. Director Boris Yukhananov took it over in 2015: He not only changed the name (which harks back to the ‘Ars [Lat. ‘Art’] electrotheater’, an early 20th century cinema in this location), but also the theater’s approach. The Stanislavsky Electrotheater goes in for combinations of different art forms, in which performances, plays and concerts complement one another.

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Well-known directors have collaborated with the theater – Theodoros Terzopoulos, Heiner Goebbels, Konstantin Bogomolov and Marfa Gorvits. Boris Yukhananov pays a lot of attention to music: almost two dozen operas have been staged at the theater, including experimental ones by contemporary composers.

Vakhtangov Theater

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The theater’s founder, Yevgeny Vakhtangov, was a pupil of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. In different periods, the theater was also headed by Ruben and Yevgeny Simonov and Mikhail Ulyanov, while, in the noughties, the chief director was the acclaimed Rimas Tuminas.

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The members of the acting company include Sergei Makovetsky, Yuliya Rutberg, Maksim Sukhanov and other stars of theater and cinema. The repertoire is a combination of the classics and modern drama, while its longest-running production was ‘Princess Turandot’. It was staged in 1922 by Vakhtangov himself and was staged until 2006. In 1997, a commemorative fountain was installed next to the theater in memory of the legendary play.

Pyotr Fomenko Workshop theater

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The alumni of director Pyotr Fomenko made one of the biggest splashes in the 1990s Moscow theater scene. They formed a new theatrical troupe that explored and built on the traditions of Russian repertory theater.

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Today, the productions put on by the so-called “Fomenki” (followers of Fomenko) include works by Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Pirandello, Gumilev, Volodin and Vampilov. Yevgeny Tsyganov, Polina Agureeva, sisters Ksenia and Polina Kutepova and Galina Tyunina, meanwhile, are among the actors who can be seen in productions staged by the theater.

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