From "Nord-Ost" to "The Phantom of the Opera": the incredible story of theatrical producer Dmitry Bogachev. Producer Dmitry Bogachev

Producer, Head theater company"Stage Entertainment"

Joop van den Ende was born on February 23, 1942 in Amsterdam. He is currently the co-founder and owner of Stage Entertainment and co-owner of the production company Endemol. It was with his filing that new traditions of the entertainment industry began to develop in the Netherlands - musical, theatrical, television.

In 1993, Joop van den Ende, together with John de Mol, founded the television company Endemol, which embodied the efforts and results of several TV organizations. As a result, Endemol has become one of the largest producers of popular television projects such as the Big Brother reality show. In 1996, Endemol was sold to Telefonica for $5.5 billion. Today, Endemol is active in 25 countries on five continents.

Stage Entertainment is a European leader in the entertainment industry, founded by Joop van den Ende in 1998. Now it is an actively developing international corporation. Under the personal leadership of Joop van den Ende, the company has become a major player in the global show business market. Stage Entertainment has 4,000 employees worldwide.

Joop van den Ende is engaged not only in entrepreneurship, but also in charity. So, for example, in 2001, a businessman and his wife established the VandenEnde Foundation, which today is one of the largest Dutch private foundations. The charitable organization VandenEnde Foundation continuously provides significant financial support to a large number of organizations - educational institutions, theater and art history organizations, as well as other companies.

Education

In 1985 he graduated with honors from a ten-year music school in piano.
In 1995 he graduated from MEPhI.
2002 - graduate of the theater management program of the British Cultural Council, the Ford Foundation and the Soros Foundation in the theater production companies of the West End (London).

Professional activity

1994-1997 - Researcher at the Russian Scientific Center ""
1997-2000 - producer, general director of the IVC company
From 1998 to 2000, Dmitry Bogachev directed the popular musical project Songs of Our Century. For a long time, the project's musical albums occupied the first lines in the sales ratings of cassettes and CDs, and the geography of the concerts of "Songs of Our Century" covered Russia, Europe, the USA and Canada.
From 2000 to 2002, Dmitry Bogachev took part in the production and distribution of the musical "Nord-Ost", the first daily musical in Russian history. as its commercial director. Dmitry Bogachev was responsible for the creation and implementation of the marketing strategy and commercial plan.
In 2003, Dmitry Bogachev, together with partners, created and headed the Russian Musical production company, which staged and screened the musical 12 Chairs. The stationary version of the performance ran in Moscow for a year, the mobile version was shown in St. Petersburg.
In November 2004, Dmitry Bogachev headed the Russian company Stage Entertainment, a subsidiary of Stage Entertainment, the world's largest theater holding. Over the entire period of its operation, the company, under the leadership of Dmitry Bogachev as general director and producer, has carried out a number of successful productions that have been watched by several million viewers.
Since 2005, Stage Entertainment has been staging and distributing world-class productions of musicals at the Moscow Palace of Youth (MDM Theatre) daily.
In 2012, on the initiative and under the direct supervision of Dmitry Bogachev, the Stage Entertainment company turns the Pushkinsky cinema into the new, most spacious theater in Moscow and returns its historical name Rossiya. Since then, Stage Entertainment has become the largest theater company in Russia, whose musicals are shown daily at the same time and daily 8 times a week at the Rossiya and MDM theaters.

Productions

2001-2002 - musical "Nord-Ost"
2003-2004 - musical "12 chairs"
2005-2006 - musical CATS
2006 - ice show for children "Peter Pan on Ice"
2006 - ice show "Fantasy"
2006-2008 - musical MAMMA MIA!
2006-2007 - ice show "Bugs Bunny on Ice"
2008-2010 - musical "Beauty and the Beast"
2009-2010 - ice musical "The Nutcracker"
2010-2011 - musical ZORRO
2010-2011 - ice musical "The Snow Queen"
2011-2012 - musical "The Sound of Music"
2011-2012 - ice musical "Sleeping Beauty"
2012 - musical "The Little Mermaid"
2012 - musical MAMMA MIA!
2012 - adventure show "Three Musketeers"

Professional achievements and awards

The musical ZORRO was included in the official cultural program of the Year of Spain in Russia 2011
RUSSIAN BOOK OF RECORDS - THE NUTCRACKER - the most popular ice show in the history of the country
The Russian production of "Beauty and the Beast" in 2008 broke the European popularity record, becoming the most visited show in continental Europe.
BOOK OF RECORDS OF RUSSIA - MAMMA MIA! - the most popular musical in the history of the country
OVATION Award 2008 for the musical MAMMA MIA!
National award MUSICAL HEART OF THE THEATER 2007 - best producer
EFFIE 2007 Marketing Award for MAMMA MIA! - Best Entertainment Brand in 2007
EFFIE 2005 Musical Marketing Award CATS - Best Brand in Entertainment and Media in 2005
National award GOLDEN MASK for the musical NORD-OST - the best musical performance in 2002
Award SILVER ARCHER for the PR strategy of the musical NORD-OST in 2002

HELLO! presents the incredible story of Dmitry Bogachev, a romantic physicist who turned his passion for music into his life's work and brought Broadway closer to Moscow. life path Dmitry deserves to be the basis for the script for the film. 25 years ago, he could have become a talented pianist, could have done research at the Kurchatov Institute, or gone to work in the United States. His choice was unexpected and even incomprehensible at that time: Dmitry decided to introduce Russia to the culture of the musical.

The very first serious production - "Nord-Ost" - turned into a tragedy: the terrorists seized the building on Dubrovka. During the capture, Dmitry lost his mother. And again - he would retreat, seeing a bad omen, return to scientific work and don't tempt fate. But no. Today, Dmitry Bogachev is the most successful theatrical producer in Russia, but he admits that until now, every new business begins with the question to himself: "Will I succeed or not?" Dmitry Bogachev, general producer theater company
"Stage Entertainment"

For more than a decade, the best Broadway stories have been staged on the Moscow stage by the team of his Stage Entertainment company. Hundreds of people work on one performance: actors, dancers, musicians, arrangers, set designers, directors, dance directors. The shows are a huge success. This result was brought to him not only by diligence, character and luck, but also by fate itself.

- Dmitry, let's go in order. By education you are a "physicist", not a "lyricist". Where did your interest in musicals come from?

I have always been interested in music. I graduated from a music school in piano in Minsk, and even won prizes at competitions for young pianists. And then, unexpectedly for everyone and himself, he decided to enter the Institute of Physics and Technology. However, he did not give up music lessons. In the evenings I went to evening school at the conservatory. After that, I worked at the Kurchatov Institute in the laboratory of electron microscopy, studied the structure of metals and was completely delighted with my work! I wanted to become a scientist, a researcher, I even got my first scientific publications, and I still have an invitation to one of the American universities at home.
Dmitry Bogachev before the premiere of the musical "The Phantom of the Opera", 2014

So why didn't you become a scientist?

It was a difficult time, wages were not paid for months, there was not enough money, and my family and I survived on college food coupons. At some point, it pressed me so hard that I had to think: what to live on? Then I had a hobby: at the university, Nastya, my wife, and I organized concerts of the author's song. We even had our own trio, we performed, went to the Grushinsky festival. And once they organized a big concert of the then very popular jazz trio Kramer, Garanyan and Kuznetsov in the hall of the Palace of Culture of the Institute of Steel and Alloys. There were almost fifteen hundred spectators there. And unexpectedly for ourselves we have earned money.

Then the first company appeared, a firm that consisted of two people - me and the chief accountant Lena. We were engaged in the author's song, created the project "Songs of our century", which brought together the most famous and popular bards, released several discs, showed television versions of concerts on federal channels, organized tours in Russia, Europe and the USA. It was the first experience of a serious commercial approach to a non-commercial art song. Despite the financial crisis of 1998, the project proved to be very successful. The album "Songs of our century" occupied the first lines in the sales ratings, sometimes overtaking the albums of the most popular pop stars - Philip Kirkorov and Alla Pugacheva. I was incredibly proud of this.

In parallel, all this time I was engaged in the work of the bard duet Alexei Ivashchenko and Georgy Vasilyev "Ivasi" - that's what everyone called him then.

Dmitry Bogachev with his wife Anastasia and Philip Kirkorov at the premiere of the musical "The Phantom of the Opera", Moscow, 2014

- It was they who came up with the idea to stage the musical "Nord-Ost"?

Yes. They set about making a musical based on the story "Two Captains". They wrote the libretto and music, so the first Russian musical "Nord-Ost" was born. The production budget, it seems to me, was about four million dollars - huge at that time! It was a completely crazy adventure in which no one believed except us. To put on a musical on a Broadway scale, to gather full houses every day in the little-known hall of the Palace of Culture of the GPP on Dubrovka - it seemed incredible.

And the success was overwhelming. But, despite this, now, when we say "Nord-Ost", we recall the tragedy at Dubrovka...

Unfortunately, yes. It so happened that during one of the performances, the actors and the audience were held hostage by terrorists. Usually I came to the theater at the beginning of the performance, controlled the quality of service for the audience, looked at the attendance, eavesdropped during the interval what people were saying about the production. And on that ill-fated day, I was invited to another performance - the musical "42nd Street" at MDM, which, ironically, years later became the first theater of the Stage Entertainment company and, in fact, my second home.

This performance was attended by Boris Yeltsin. During the intermission, the director's assistant Dasha Ermish called me on my mobile and whispered in confusion: "Dima, we have been captured." It was one of the first calls from the captured theatre. I approached Yeltsin's guards and told them what had happened. They worked very quickly and professionally. We went to the Kremlin to the operational duty officer for Moscow, then to the Lubyanka, then to the operational headquarters on Melnikova Street, where I spent the next three days and nights.

- The tragedy touched you personally. Your mother is on the death list. How did she get there?

She was already retired, she did not want to sit at home. Mom loved the theater and helped, working as a usher in the hall service. She liked to watch performances, communicate with the audience, she liked the atmosphere itself ... And that evening she was there.

- Many would regard what happened as a sign that you should not continue with musicals. And you?

But I saw it differently. I thought that this would be a betrayal in relation to those who did not finish watching the performance that terrible evening. Before these sad events, journalists, critics, everyone around said that the musical is an alien genre. And after the tragedy, he had no chance at all. But I did not want to believe it, because it was contrary to my ideas, experience and intuition. If the musical is popular in Europe and America, then it will be recognized among Russian viewers as well. The musical is the most cheerful and most honest, open to perception genre. How can you not like it?

After "Nord-Ost" I went to London to learn the secrets of the commercial theater and become a real producer. Then a new musical appeared - "12 Chairs", which we staged together with Alexander Tsekalo and Tigran Keosayan. Unfortunately, this production was not successful. But in world practice this is a common thing: there are dozens of productions on the same Broadway, but only a few become popular.

- Who decides what performance you put on next?

The musical Zorro, for example, failed in London and Paris. And in Moscow, after a fair amount of processing, he won the hearts of the public and went with a full house. This is due to the mentality, culture that shape the perception. Everything is important, even the time when the performance is staged. Philip Kirkorov staged CHICAGO in the early 2000s, but the mass audience at that time was not ready for such an unusual aesthetic. As a result, the musical received a cool reception. In our country, last year, the production went on with daily full houses for eight months. The same thing happened with the musical "The Little Mermaid", which was very calmly received on Broadway. We changed the design of the production, the direction, even the music, essentially creating a new "The Little Mermaid". And the audience for two years in a row went with pleasure to this musical in our second theater "Russia", and Broadway producers welcomed such a resounding success. I'm proud of our own production of The Sound of Music. The great American director Jack O'Brien recently admitted in an interview with The Associated Press that he created the American production of The Sound of Music under the influence of the Russian performance, which moved him to tears.
Dmitry Bogachev with the actors of the production of "ZORRO" Dmitry Ermak, Valeria Lanskaya, Anastasia Makeeva and Gleb Matveychuk, 2012
Dmitry Bogachev with actress Elena Charkviani and soloists of the ABBA group at the Moscow premiere of the musical MAMMA MIA!, 2012

- "Stage Entertainment" is perhaps the only company that cooperates very closely with theatrical monsters and the undisputed leaders of the West End and Broadway. Why is that?

These are the two world centers of the musical, the genre was born there. So we must learn from what others have been working on for decades. They are more experienced than us, there is no point in arguing that. I am often accused of doing replicas. This is not entirely true. We also have our own productions, such as The Sound of Music or The Little Mermaid. They are recognized as experts: last year, for example, we received the prestigious Golden Mask theater award, and this year I was invited to become the first foreign member of the League of Broadway Producers. Now I dream of the time when our productions will appear on Broadway and will be worthy of international competition.
Dmitry Bogachev and British composer Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber,
author of the musical "The Phantom of the Opera"

- Brave claim! Do you have any specific ideas or are these ideas ephemeral?

I came up with the idea of putting on the musical stage a beautiful fictional story of Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last Russian Tsar, who, according to legend, survived and after amazing and incredible adventures found her happiness. People at all times wanted it to be so, not wanting to believe the sad truth of life. In the musical it became possible. In the 1930s, a play on this topic was written on Broadway, and a film was made a few decades later, for which Ingrid Bergman received an Oscar for her role. And a few years later, the animated film "Anastasia" was released, the music of which simply suggested the stage life of this plot. I was very fascinated by the idea of putting the musical on the theater stage, and I infected with my enthusiasm the creative team, which, under my leadership, has been working on this material on Broadway for two years now.
Dmitry Bogachev receives the Golden Mask award for the creation of the musical The Little Mermaid. On stage - with the actors of the production Dmitry Yermak, Natalia Bastrov and Evgeny Zaitsev

15-year history of Broadway musicals in Russia. About this cultural observer Grigory Zaslavsky talked to the producer Dmitry Bogachev in the program "Service Entrance" on the radio "Vesti FM".

ZASLAVSKY: In the studio Grigory Zaslavsky, good afternoon. And the guest of our today's program is the famous producer Dmitry Bogachev. Hello Dmitry.

BOGACHEV: Hello dear listeners. Hello Gregory.

ZASLAVSKY: I understand that you broke up completely, well, it's been a long time and it's known that you broke up with Stage Entertainment. But as in the play "The Forest" by Ostrovsky, when Gurmyzhskaya, talking with her neighbors, she says: "Yes, I was disappointed in marriage, but not in men," you broke up with Stage Entertainment, but not with musicals. And the new performance, as I understand it, which you are doing in Moscow, is partly a continuation of this production activity of yours, because this is not a Russian musical, it is quite a Broadway production, but not quite a musical anymore.

BOGACHEV: Let me, yes, now I will surprise you.

ZASLAVSKY: Let's. This is the most important quality of a theatrical figure in general.

BOGACHEV: There's No Business Like Show Business, as the famous song from the famous film, the film of the same name, in which Marilyn Monroe played, is sung. Yes, this profession is to surprise, our task is to surprise the public, and we will continue to surprise her. And the first surprise for 15 years of existence of the MDM Theater... This year marks 15 years since we started staging musicals with Russian artists there before Stage Entertainment, in 2003 we staged the musical "12 Chairs" with Alexander Tsekalo and Tigran Keosanyan. a year and a half later, I founded the Russian company Stage Entertainment as part of a large international theater holding, and then there were the next 15 years, during which we staged well over a dozen, probably, productions of Broadway musicals or Broadway-type musicals, but these were invariably spectacular, bright, interesting, musically rich.

And for the first time in 15 years, as soon as we enter a new phase in the life of the MDM Theater, a new phase of my professional career already outside the Stage, again outside the Stage, we decided to surprise the audience by showing the first non-musical on the main musical stage of the country, with which became the MDM Theater for these very 15 years. But nevertheless, there is still some kind of continuity, because it is still a Broadway show. We just decided to show a different side of Broadway and remind our viewers, our listeners that Broadway is not only musicals, for the most part musicals, but not only musicals, and on Broadway every year there are a dozen or one and a half wonderful plays of classics and some experimental productions, but always of very high quality. All world classics are staged from Chekhov to Scott Fitzgerald, Arthur Miller, well, that is, everything - and American classics, French, English, Russian there, and also on a daily basis.

But, the truth is, as a rule, the life cycle of plays, it is much shorter than musicals, it is usually three, there are four or five months of hire. And only the play that will be discussed now, called "A Very Funny Comedy About How the Show Went Wrong", beats some unthinkable popularity records, it is shown on Broadway for almost two years in a row, which was complete surprise both for the Broadway theater community and the theater community, and for its English authors and producers. Because this play is English in its place of birth and was first staged in London.

It's still running in London, for three years now. And later, during this period of time, for three years of daily rental in London (and a year and a half, almost two on Broadway and in 20 other countries of the world), this play, this comedy received all conceivable and unthinkable theatrical awards, including the three main ones - this the French "Molière", this is the English "Laurence Olivier" and this is the Broadway American "Tony". We hope for the "Golden Mask".