A. I. Raikin Pop Theatre

In 1723, Peter I issued a decree ordering "to make a comedian's house out of boards on Admiralty Island". The first public spectacular building of the city was located on the banks of Moika near Nevsky Prospect. At that time, the hot banks of the rivers and frequent floods did not allow the construction of buildings close to the water, and the theater was located some distance from the shore, approximately where the Arkady Raikin Estrada Theater is currently located. In the XIX century on this territory was the hotel "Demutov Traktir", the guests of which were Pushkin, Griboyedov, Batyushkov, Chaadaev, Turgenev. By the beginning of the XX century, the building overlooking the Big Stable is occupied by a fashionable restaurant "Bear". In the 30s, the former restaurant was converted into a theater. And in 1939, the first state professional Estrada Theatre in Russia was opened here. The best masters from different cities of the country were honored to perform on this stage. Here the art of entertaining blossomed, jazz bands Leonid Utesov and Oleg Lundstrem regularly concerted, Claudius Shulzhenko began her long career. The stage of the theater remembers the brilliant masters of the colloquial genre Maria Mironova and Alexander Menaker, Peter Muravsky, Veniamin Nechaev and Pavel Rudakov. His hall heard the voices of Alexander Vertinsky, Leonid Kostritsa, Lydia Ruslanova. In 1944, on this stage, he began his triumphant path in the domestic stage Theatre of Miniatures under the leadership of Arkady Raikin. St. Petersburg Arkady Raikin Estrada Theatre is a home for Russian pop artists. In the poster of the theater every day a new concert program or performance. Here for the first time came to the professional scene now popular Ben Benzinov, Edita Pieha, Eduard Hill, Rubina Kalantaryan, Maria Pakhomenko, German Orlov, Grigory Baskin "Terem-Quartet", Vyacheslav Polunin and "Lycedei", Ilya Oleynikov and Yuri Stoyanov, Marina Kapuro and the group "Yabloko", Nikolai Pozdeev, Evgeny Dyatlov, Taisia Kalinchenko. This scene became native to Roman Kartsev. Mikhail Zhvanetsky, Elena Kamburova, Sergey Zakharov, David Goloshchekin, Alexander Dolsky, Tatiana Abramova, Irina Skorik, Marina Tschai. The theatre is now a springboard for the young and talented. Today, the audience applauds Pavel Kashin, parodyist Alexei Fedotov, the group "St. Petersburg musical ensemble", the studio of pantomime and plastics "Atelier", Tatiana Dolgopolova, the theater "X", Natalia Sorokina, Olga Favorskaya, the winners of the competition "Spring of romance" Galina and Oleg Ivanov, Zara, Larisa Lusta, the young group "Our theater" under the leadership of Lev Stukalov and many others.