Aaron, a dating rookie, and Casey, a dating expert, meet at a restaurant.
As they make small talk, they realise that they don't seem to have anything in common with each other: Aaron is a conservative Wall Street elitist who is rational and strict and is looking for a meaningful relationship, while Casey is in the art industry and is passionate, and seems a little bit too trendy for a finance guy. As the date unfolds, the pair soon discovers that the distance between their hearts doesn't seem to be as far as they thought it would be on this unnamable night ......

The Broadway musical First Date has been an unprecedented audience favourite since its premiere in Seattle, USA in 2012. The musical, written by Austin Winsberg, the writer of Gossip Girl, Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner (represented by Return to Seventeen and Storybrooke), is a cross-border collaboration that combines the narrative techniques of film and television with the expression of musical theatre, using ‘cerebral fantasy’ and ‘inner monologue’ to interpret the story. The show is a romantic tale of ‘anti-cliché dating’ with ‘cerebral fantasies’ and ‘inner monologues’, and was praised by The Hollywood Reporter as ‘a refreshing take on Broadway’. The Hollywood Reporter described it as ‘a refreshing change of pace for Broadway’.
The show features catchy classics such as ‘First Impressions,’ ‘Safer,’ ‘The Girl For You,’ and ‘In Love With You,’ which are often sung in chorus during performances, allowing the audience to relax and immerse themselves in a joyful atmosphere.

The show has been performed in Seattle, New York, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Tokyo, Moscow and many other countries and regions around the world, and has been nominated for 10 of the world's top 3 theatre awards.
The upcoming Russian version of ‘First Date’ premiered in Moscow in 2019 and has been performed 350+ times.

‘Adaptation by a Golden Mask-accredited team of actors and actresses
The Russian version of Mamma Mia! & The Phantom of the Opera's Gold Medalist Producer + The Golden Mask Award Winners from Russia's highest theatre award = 100% unmissable excitement!

Producer: Dmitry Bogachev

The Russian version of the Broadway musical ‘First Date’ is led by Dmitry Bogachev, one of Russia's top producers. Dmitry Bogachev Dmitry Bogachev has been the producer of the Russian versions of the musicals Cats, Mamma Mia, Beauty and the Beast, Zorro, The Sound of Music, The Little Mermaid, Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera, Cinderella, and Spectre, as well as the ice musicals The Nutcracker, The Snow Queen, Sleeping Beauty, The Three Musketeers, The The Wizard of Oz, Sinbad and Princess Anna.In 2014, Dmitry Bogachev became the first foreign member of the Alliance of Broadway Producers and received an official invitation from the Alliance's organising committee based on a vote of its members.

Directed by Anna Shevchuk

Anna Shevchuk graduated from the St. Petersburg State Theatre Academy, majoring in theatre directing. She has been working in musical theatre since 2004. She was the director of the Russian musical ‘The Bremen Band’ and the Russian musical ‘The Fly’, as well as the assistant director of the musical ‘We Will Rock You’ in London's West End. As a director, she worked on the Russian version of the musicals Spy Chess, Mamma Mia, Beauty and the Beast, Singin' in the Rain, Cinderella, Ghost and several theatre productions.

Music Director: Evgeny Zagot

Well-known Russian composer, conductor, arranger and music producer. Winner of the ‘Golden Mask’ award (Russian musical ‘Spy Chess’). He is a four-time winner of the ‘Heart of Theatre Music’ award in Russia, and the winner of the ‘Song of the Year’ award in 2015.
Participated in the creation of musicals ‘First Date’, ‘The Last Story’, ‘Valentine's Day’, ‘Robin Hood’, ‘The Sorcerer of the Emerald City’, ‘Lukomoye’, ‘Treasure Island’, etc.; was the music director and chief conductor of the Russian musicals ‘Fearless’, ‘With You’, ‘Chess in the Spy Game’, ‘Mamma Mia! and Chief Conductor of the Russian musicals ‘Fearless’, ‘With You’, ‘Spy Chess’, ‘Mamma Mia!’, as well as Music Producer and Conductor of the Disney Magic Constellations concerts, and Guest Conductor of the musicals ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘Singin’ in the Rain’.
He has also composed scores for several films and songs for leading Russian musicians and groups such as the Turetsky Choir and Dima Bilan.

Stage Designer: Alexander Sivaev

Winner of the ‘Golden Mask Award’ (Escape, Vakhtangov Theatre).
Graduated from the Production Department of the Moscow Art Drama Academy in 2008, since 2012 he has been the chief lighting technician of the Moscow Light Opera. Maintains year-round cooperation with many renowned national and international theatres, including the Bolshoi Theatre, Mariinsky Theatre, Boris Elfman Theatre, Royal Opera House Stockholm, Hungarian State Opera, Basel Theatre, Saltram Theatre, Moscow Art Theatre, Pushkin Drama Theatre, and Contemporary Theatre. He has designed the lighting for the Russian version of the musicals ‘Spy Chess’, ‘Zorro’, ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘Cinderella’.
He was nominated for the Golden Mask Award for the opera ‘The Tales of Hoffmann’ (Mariinsky Theatre, 2012) and the play ‘Uncle Vanya’ (Vakhtangov Theatre, 2018).

Costume Designer: Tatiana Noginova
Tatiana Noginova is a renowned Russian costume designer and a two-time winner of the Golden Mask Award (for the ballets Cinderella and The Fountain of Bakhchisarai).
A graduate of the Production Department of the Leningrad State Serkasov Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema, she has created costume designs for over 100 plays, operas and ballets for theatres in Russia, Europe, the United States and Australia.Between 1991 and 2017, she served as Chief Costume Designer and Technical Director of the Mariinsky Theatre.She was involved in the production of the costumes for the Closing Ceremony of the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

Russian Musical Theatre Star Immerses Himself in a Fascinating Rendezvous with a Dating Partner
The Russian musical ‘First Date’ tours to China for the first time, bringing together a number of popular musical theatre stars from the Russian musical theatre scene. In the theatre, seven actors play more than 20 roles, smoothly transforming their identities, and amusingly interpreting the epic disaster blind date scene with a big hole in the brain, sweet but not greasy, and tears in laughter.
At the same time, the immersive theatre space is designed to recreate the atmosphere of a New York restaurant, where the boundaries between the top and bottom of the stage are broken, and the actors and the audience are in situ as ‘date wingmen’: the audience sits in the front rows at round tables, and the show does not start on the stage, but in the middle of the audience. (Some performances are subject to venue availability.)