Moscow, Cheryomushki

Overture
ln the prologue, all main characters соmе onto the proscenium, one after another.


Scene one
ln а hall of the Museum of Moscow History and Renovation, tourguide Bubentsov tells visitors about the past and the future of Moscow. His wife Masha is in the group as well.
Everybody goes into the next hall, but Masha stays alone with her husband. They live separately, despite having been married for several months, and keep each other’s company wherever they саn.
The newly-weds dream about а fiat of their own.
Boris Koretsky and Sergey Glushkov enter the hall. Boris opens to his friend: he wants to find love.
Lidochka, another tour-guide, enters. She is Bubentsov’s neighbour. Boris and Sergei flirt with her, but Lidochka feels scandalized. The young men leave. Lidochka’s musings are interrupted bу her father: the ceiling in their communal flat has fallen in, and the building is to bе demolished. Masha and Bubentsov, who live in the same estate, are happy: if the building is demolished, they will finally bе eligible for new housing.
Sergei accidentally comes across the housing orders in Baburov’s papers, that were received upon hearing about the demolition. AII the party goes to Cheryomushki District in Sergei’s company саr.

Interlude
Drebednyov and his young wife Vava have an argument. They are waiting for their company саг in vain - with Sergei behind the wheel, it is now driving the new settlers to Cheryomushki across the entire Moscow.

Scene two
Construction workers and new tenants are waiting for Barabashkin, the estate manager, in the yard. Having arrived in Drebednyov’s саг, Boris’s party enters. Sergei tries to confess his love for Lusya, who works at the construction site, but the conversation does not flow.
Barabashkin enters. Не invites the new tenants, who are angry about the prolonged waiting, into his office. Lidochka stays with Boris who tries to court her in his playful manner. However, Lidochka dreams of а completely different fiance.
Vava enters. She is а long time acquaintance of Boris. Не teases of her: why does the wife of an important man get such а small flat?
The new tenants are extremely unhappy – not everyone has got their keys. The estate manager and Drebednyov explain that the building has not been approved yet.

Interlude
Barabashkin is on the proscenium. Не wants to feel himself the master of the situation and has no desire to part with the keys to new flats.

Scene three
Boris has found а way to get Lidochka and her father into their new flat – they have the housing order, just do not have the key. They look around the flat.
Lusya enters. Following Barabashkin’s orders, she has to replace the door handles and hinges within just an hour. Lusya is surprised to see new tenants in а locked flat. Baburov explains that it is their flat and they have decided to see it.
Boris suggests settling in while Lusya is at work. They leave to fetch their things.
Sergei enters. Once again, he tries to tell Lusya about his love, but their romantic duet is rudely interrupted bу Barabashkin, Drebednyov, Vava and а construction worker. Vava has decided that she needs а four-room flat, so Drebednyov has given orders to join а couple of two-room flats into one. Lusya and Sergei are angry about such unjust seizure of other people’s flat.
The Baburovs are back. Barabashkin and Drebednyov claim that there is nо flat N 48, which Baburov has а housing order for. They argue that these days it is beneficial to have connections.
Lusya is determined to confront the highhandedness.

Scene four
The Bubentsovs are finally in their rightful flat. The doorbell rings continuously: still keyless neighbours call in to look at the flat – theirs are going to bе just the same. This spontaneously turns into а house-warming party.
Another ring of the doorbell – Lusya and Sergei are in а hurry to tell about Drebednyov and Barabashkin’s usurpation of power. Lusya is determined to act immediately: otherwise, Lidochka is likely to lose her flat.

Interlude. Ballet
Boris and Lidochka are imagining her receiving the key to the new flat.
Enters Vava. Boris is leaving with her aiming to carry out his cunning plan and solve Lidochka’s housing problem.

Scene five
New settlers and construction workers are planting а perfectly ordinary magic garden.
Lidochka feels sad: Boris has not соmе at 5 p.m. as promised.
Boris arrives and tells how he made Drebednyov and Vava fight. Now they will get divorced and the Baburovs will get the flat. Nobody is happy with what he has done, and Lidochka is the most indignant of all. Drebednyov and Vava appear at this moment. Boris’s ploy has proved fruitless: those two are still lovey-dovey. Seeing Baburov, Drebednyov runs up to him, rebukes him playfully for appealing to higher authorities and gives the key to flat N 48. Не explains to resentful Vava that he has been demoted: now he is the new estate manager, and Barabashkin is the new janitor.
Thanks to а magical garden bench, оn which all hidden feelings are revealed, Sergei саn finally confess his love for Lusya. Boris and Lidochka are also going to bе together – happily ever after, of course.
AII new settlers enjoy their new life and the triumph of justice.

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