Maria Aronova did the splits three times

The actress did this in the finale of the play “Mademoiselle Nitouche”, which was held at the Theater. Vakhtangov was played for the 500th time. The long-running performance impressed with its excellent form and humor, which was overflowing that evening.

Behind the scenes, the mood is somewhat upbeat – after all, Nitush has a cool figure. Maria Aronova is already in makeup, but still without a costume. Nonna Grishaeva calmly speaks on the phone – she should go out in the second act. A breathtaking toilet and a headdress in feathers, her Corinne is calmly waiting for the actress.

The director of the legendary production, Vladimir Ivanov, has already rehearsed the ending, which will be performed only once, because it was composed for the occasion.

— Vladimir Vladimirovich, did you know that your “Mademoiselle Nitouche” will live for almost 20 years and you will celebrate five hundred performances?

– Well, what are you talking about! When the play came out in 2004, your colleagues attacked us and wrote all sorts of things about the play. That it was a cheap operetta, mothballs, and they accused it of almost vulgarity. But this is the 500th performance, and if you consider that there are 1,508 seats in the hall of our theater, then… yes, it seems that more than half a million spectators watched it.

He said and went backstage. The cake that will be taken out in the finals has not yet been lifted there. The cake is huge, five tiers and weighing 25 kilograms. Each tier is decorated with curtain elements and rosettes in dark red and soft pink. A ribbon, apparently made of marzipan, with the name of the performance encircles the second one. The last tier is crowned with the number 500. 500 candles have been prepared, which participants from all years will blow out together.

There were many participants, and here are two of them: the famous Vladimir Simonov, he played the role of the twin brother of the heroine Maria Aronova – colonel. And Pavel Lyubimtsev, who still plays the theater director. “Heavenly swallows” ran past – pupils of the boarding school at the monastery, all in gray checkered skirts and blue frock coats; Shchuka students are usually recruited for their roles. The main requirement is vocal ability, since they have several choirs.

It must be said that Mademoiselle Nitouche is a historical production. Ruben Simonov began rehearsing it back in 1942 in Omsk, where the theater was evacuated, and the premiere was played in Moscow in 1943. But Herve’s operetta, which was popular with the public, was played only 146 times, and in the late 40s, in the wake of the fight against cosmopolitanism, it was closed.

In 2004, Mikhail Ulyanov, being the artistic director of the theater, decided to resume the production, which was done. Director Vladimir Ivanov, who by that time had a bright course at the theater school, got down to business. Nonna Grishaeva began rehearsing the role of Denise, and her classmate Maria Aronova began rehearsing the mother-boss. Floridor (aka Celisten) was assigned to Alexander Oleshko.

Improvisation is what the play is largely based on, and yesterday there were fireworks from this point of view. It seemed like everyone was joking, but Aronova, of course, set the tone, who did not miss an opportunity so as not to put her partners in a difficult position. The hall lay down, and this is not an exaggeration. The old plot was tested both with jokes about Covid and the repertoire of modern stars. The joke was made in front of the public, here and now.

And in the finale, Maria Aronova performed her famous couplets, but with a different text. In particular, they mentioned another participant who, like Aronova, worked for Mademoiselle Nitouche 500 times. True, no one has ever seen him, because he sits in the orchestra pit. But now the people recognized the hero – trumpeter Mikhail Ainetdinov. He gave a solo on the trumpet, and the mother-boss, aka Maria Aronova, set a record and did the splits twice to the screams and whistles of the audience. But the 500th was the only performance where this happened three times – the first time Aronova did the splits at the end of the second act.

And, of course, there was a curtain cake and a collective blowing out of five hundred candles. Long Summer, “Mademoiselle Nitouche”.