Alexander Vertinsky. The Lord’s Ball…

Marlene Dietrich loved him, Rachmaninoff and Bing Crosby admired him, and Leonid Utyosov and Charlie Chaplin were among his admirers. With an incredible lisp, he sang in expensive concert halls and cheap dives about the pink sea and the crazy organ grinder, the purple-haired Negro and the banana-lemon Singapore.

The play “Alexander Vertinsky. The Lord’s Ball…” is the poignant story of a pop idol, a man with an extraordinary destiny. And about the performer who plays the chansonnier, Yuri Andryushchenko, audiences write only in rapturous tones: “Brilliantly acted! Bravo!!! The performance of the songs is flawless!!!”, “What a great job! Vertinsky’s life was lived and felt by the artist. Bravo!”, “Amazing! The actor captured Vertinsky’s era perfectly.” “A time of upheaval, isolation from the Motherland, the horrors of loss, encounters with the unknown… And such a depth of experience, lost, squandered, acquired, preserved…”, “Today I stood near the house where He was born in Kyiv at 43 Vladimirskaya Street. And listened to your one-man show. It felt like He was right there. You became one with Him in soul and talent! Hats off!”, “Vertinsky will always be heard. There is soul in this. The show is magnificent!”

It’s no wonder that the show, which has been running for over 15 years, won the International Festival of Small Forms Performances in Hanover, Germany, where Yuri Andryushchenko was awarded the Grand Prix.

In banana-lemon Singapore, in the storm,
When the ocean sings and cries
And drives a distant caravan of birds through the dazzling azure…

The “Magnolia” tango became the signature tune of its creator, Alexander Vertinsky, a legendary Russian chanson performer, composer, and poet.