Vaudeville as a genre of variety and family-oriented entertainment and one of the predecessors of the music-hall and musical was especially popular in the United States and Canada from its rise in the 1880s through its demise in the 1930s. It was brought to Russia from the French theatre and enjoyed much success with the public.

The audience always loved this genre for its democratic features and entertaining qualities whereas serious and enlightened tragedy and drama lovers scorned it for being “hollow” entertainment for an undemanding taste. For many decades vaudeville was practically banished from the Russian stage but today Maly brings the undeservedly forgotten genre back to the theatre. One of the best works by a remarkable playwright and actor Pyotr Karatygin entitled «The Eccentric Deceased or a Mysterious Chest» that was written in 1843 and is now staged by Maly Theatre’s Artistic Director Yuri Solomin.



Stage version and poetry – Alexander Klukvin

Performance Director –Yuri Solomin

Designer – Enar Stenberg

Composers – Grigory Gobernik, Vladimir Moroz

Music Arrangement — Eduard Gleizer

Costume Designer – Natalia Povago

Choreography – Lyubov Parfenuk

Assistant Director – Vasiliy Fedorov

2nd Assistant Director – Vladimir Egorov


Premiere – May 4th, 2003

100th performance – February 7th, 2013

Running Time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Suitable for 12+yrs