Fear Nothing, I’m With You

The story is set in the USSR, in Leningrad of the 1980s. The wind of change has blown over the country, the streets are filled with different youth subcultures, forbidden rock has burst onto the stage and truth has appeared on national television. Three friends — Slava, nicknamed Easy Rider, a quiet graduate student Anton and soon-to-be diplomat Denis — hang out at secret rock gigs, “catch” the waves of Western radio stations, illegally sell rare vinyl records and dream of traveling to the homeland of their favorite music band The Beatles. In such an atmosphere they live, make friends and try to find happiness and love. Thus, Slava meets a beautiful stranger on the roof and falls in love with her right there and then. Anton secretly pines for Denis’s older sister Kritisna, who organizes the coolest secret gigs in the city, and Denis has a love affair with a ballet dancer, but he does not believe in their happy future, because his father decides to arrange a marriage of convenience for him with a professor’s daughter and to send him to England as a diplomat. After one of the secret gigs, the friendship suddenly begins to crumble as Denis's future wife turns out to be none other than the mysterious girl who conquered Slava's heart. The characters are faced with a choice: to be happy or to be successful, to remain true to themselves or to succumb to internal conformity, to live according to the pattern imposed by the older generation and society or to follow their own destiny.

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            The Nevsky Prospekt. Leningraders appear on the stage: schoolgirls, musicians, factory workers, representatives of various subcultures of the time (punks, rockers, etc.). They sing about life in Leningrad of the 1980s: at midnight all decent cafes and restaurants close, informal youth flood the streets, everyone returns home.

            Ivan, a newspaper journalist, shows up downstage with a voice recorder in his hands. He says into the recorder that he is fact checking. Supposedly right in the center of Leningrad one can buy vinyl records with songs by banned artists: 'Sex Pistols – propaganda of violence! Iron Maiden – religious obscurantism! Pink Floyd – perversion of the foreign policy of the USSR! Tina Turner – sex!' Ivan intends to find out everything in detail and write an article about it.

            The night inhabitants of Leningrad finish their song. At this time, a young guy, Slava, appears on stage and opens a guitar case filled with vinyl records. He announces that he sells unique records of foreign artists: there are even signed copies! Ivan is persistently trying to find out the details about what Slava is selling, in order to convict him of violating public order. Slava understands that this is not a simple buyer but a journalist. Slava begins to speak deliberately loudly, asking Ivan if he wants to buy vinyl records with songs about sex. Everyone turns around and starts looking at Ivan with amusement. Ivan is terribly embarrassed, realizing that he has been exposed. He is trying to shame Slava for selling 'harmful' music, but Slava makes him leave.

            A bespectacled guy, Anton, runs onto the stage. He is out of breath. Anton quickly apologizes to Slava for being late: his mother didn’t fall asleep for a long time, so he couldn’t leave the house. Slava pretends that he doesn’t know Anton and doesn’t understand what he is talking about. Anton remembers that he should pretend to be a fake customer and asks if he can buy a signed Beatles LP. Slava shows the vinyl records to Anton. Passers-by become interested in what is happening and begin to approach. One skeptical customer  asks incredulously if there are records signed by all four members of The Beatles. Slava pretends to rummage through the records, while quietly slipping one of the vinyl records to Anton, who signs it. Slava gives the LP to the customer, who examines the autographs carefully. A small dispute ensues between Slava and the customer about the authenticity of the autographs, but the former ends up paying for the LP, which attracts other buyers. Suddenly, a tall figure appears behind Slava and produces his ID. Customers quickly dissolve, thinking that he is a policeman. Slava, however, realizes this man is their friend Denis who decided to prank everyone.

            Slava, Anton and Denis discuss what happened in their lives while Denis lived in Moscow and studied at Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Slava kindly mocks the fact that Denis is a silver-spooner and daddy's boy, because his dad always decides everything for him. Denis laughs in response — Slava is still illegally selling vinyl records. Slava replies that Denis simply doesn’t get it. Denis gives up and tries to help his friends. He takes off his expensive jacket and declares loudly that he is a young diplomat who will soon leave his country. That is why he is selling his stuff, including vinyl records from his personal collection. Passers-by are intrigued.

            Denis, Slava and Anton sing that they have a bunch of vinyl records of different styles: rock-and-roll, pop, disco and so on. There are so many vinyl records that they are ready to sell them to everyone.

            A new character appears on stage – an eccentric-looking elderly man. It turns out that Slava promised to get him very rare  jazz records, but has still not fulfilled his promise, although the man has already paid. Slava jokes with him and drives him away. At this moment, a stern voice is heard: a real policeman appears. Friends are scared away.

             Slava hides in the gateway of a house and notices a girl standing on the edge of the roof. He begs her not to jump down. The girl jokingly asks what will happen if she jumps up. Slava replies that he would like to say that she will fly to the stars, but, unfortunately, this is impossible. Continuing to exchange funny phrases with this beautiful stranger, Slava climbs a fire ladder to the roof of the neighboring house. The carefree conversation continues. Slava’s heart has been already conquered, but the girl says that, most likely, they have completely different interests and problems. Slava replies that he is ready to solve all her problems and, without hesitation, takes out the money he got for selling vinyl records. The girl says that money is not the most important thing in life. Slava instantly throws money down from the roof. Unexpectedly, the girl says that the divorce rate in capitalist countries is much higher than in the Soviet Union, to which Slava joyfully replies that this is why he will find a wife here in Leningrad. They continue their cut and thrust: it turns out that the girl loves English literature, and Slava doesn’t know anything about it. Moreover, they even like different Beatles! There is a slight pause. The girl says she didn't really intend to jump from the roof. Slava replies that he knows that and assumes that she came to the roof to make some important decision. The girl nods: he got it right. She thanks him for his company and begins to climb down from the roof, but Slava says that it is a miracle that they met, that they are probably soulmates. The girl laughs and replies that if this is true, then they will definitely see each other again. Before finally leaving, the girl says that her name is Alice and disappears.

            Anton and Denis appear on stage. They are out of breath, picking up money lying on the ground. Anton sees Slava and tells him how he and Denis tried to hide from the police, when suddenly money began to fall down on them from the sky: they wonder who this crazy person is, throwing money around like that. Slava admits that it was their proceed for vinyl records and that he threw it away himself. His friends are confused, but Slava says he met an incredible girl, Alice. Anton and Denis ask who she is, whether he found out her address or phone number. Slava realizes that he didn’t. He is upset. Friends calm him down and say that they will go look for her in popular cafes and will definitely find her. Slava replies that Alice is not the kind of frivolous girl who goes to such places.

            Denis and Slava sing playfully about Alice: she can knit and paint, and she sits quietly at home in the evenings, like a good girl. Slava joins the song: he really wants to meet her again.

            The music stops. Anton says that he understands his friend very well, because exactly the same story happened to him. Slava and Denis don’t believe that their friend has ever had a girlfriend. Anton hesitantly tells a clearly fictitious story about how he met a girl, and then changes the topic: Denis should also tell something like that about himself! Denis says he’s getting married. Slava and Anton are shocked, they clearly did not expect this, and ask for more details. Denis says that his dad wants to send him as a diplomat to the UK and because of this Denis needs a wife – an ideal Soviet woman. Dad found a perfect match: the daughter of his classmate, Professor Lavrentiev. Slava and Anton ask Denis about the girl, but he responds that he will only meet her in person tomorrow. Slava and Anton will also be able to meet her tomorrow, at the party of his older sister Kristina. The friends are going to leave, because a hard day awaits Denis tomorrow. However, Denis is not going home: this is the last day of his bachelor life, and he wants to get the most out of it.

            The song begins and the ballet dancer named Arina appears. It turns out that Denis is in love with her. Denis sings about how, late in the evening, when the moon shines in the sky and everyone goes to bed, he comes to see Arina: they sit by the fireplace, enjoy the smell of jasmine, and no one can disturb them. In the morning, after a cup of coffee, they always part, but even if Denis dates someone else, he is always happy to meet Arina again.

            The scene shifts to the apartment of Denis and Kristina’s parents. They are going to the theater, because Kristina gave them tickets, for which they are very grateful. They believe that while they are at the theater, their daughter will have a quiet name-day celebration with friends.

            Kristina's guests arrive. Everyone tries to look as innocent as possible. They sing that everything is ready for the holiday: the apartment is cleaned, the chairs are arranged, the food is ready and a cake is baked. Everyone wishes Kristina happiness.

            Kristina's parents are happy to see what good friends their daughter has and leave. At that moment all the guests change their gray suits for bright, stylish outfits. The tune She Doesn’t Understand begins to play, and with it everything finally turns from a decent gathering into a wild party of young people. The guests sing that Kristina is actually very fiery. Guests drink, eat, dance and have fun.

            Slava and Anton arrive. Kristina tells the guys how her parents believe that her name-day is almost every day. Anton says that had she actually arranged a name-day party every day, Anton would have moved in with her long ago. Grinning, Kristina says that she doesn’t mind, which makes Anton blush. It is obvious that he likes her.

            At this moment, Slava notices that the journalist Ivan is among the guests. Slava, in bewilderment, points Kristina at Ivan and says that it’s time to end the party, but Kristina just laughs. It turns out that Ivan and Kristina know each other: she is the one who writes all his newspaper articles. And now he came to Kristina for help as well. She quickly looks through the text that Ivan wrote and says that it is poorly written and she will rewrite everything. Anton is perplexed that she helps this journalist who is literally their enemy. Kristina shrugs it off and states that by helping Ivan 'expose' underground parties, she only makes them more popular.

            Kristina quickly rewrites the text. Ivan is very impressed. The only sad thing is that today Kristina doesn’t have any banned music bands as guests. She agrees and points to the expensive Japanese video camera in the corner, which her father gave her: she dreams of making a music program about the Leningrad underground music. Slava leans towards Kristina, whispering something to her. After that, Slava and Anton put on strange clothes, glasses and hats. Kristina turns on the camera. She announces to the guests that she has a surprise in store: a foreign band that is so banned in the Soviet Union that even she doesn’t yet know where they are from, what kind of music they perform, or even what they are called. Slava and Anton, with serious faces, come downstage. They say random English phrases imitating British accent. All the guests understand who is in front of them, but Ivan doesn’t recognize Slava and Anton.

  SCENE 7. ‘SARA BARA BU’

            Anton and Slava sing in pigeon English. Their song has an absurd plot about a girl named Sara Bara Bu who lives in the bay of Timbuktu with a cow named Moo and an old marabou. The 'foreign stars' invite Ivan to join them for the second verse. He imitates the mooing of a cow. The rest of the guests start singing along, supporting Slava and Anton's prank. But then the friends suddenly switch to Russian and take off their costumes. All the guests tease Ivan, who runs away ashamed.

            Suddenly, when the song is over, Alice appears on stage face to face with Slava.  This is it, a real miracle! Slava introduces Alice to Anton as the girl he will marry and quickly runs away somewhere. Alice laughs and says that Anton has a very fickle friend. Anton agrees and says that Slava was expelled from the Komsomol because the two of them broadcast Western radio stations instead of the Soviet radio throughout the city for several days. When the prank was discovered, Slava took the blame, so that Anton could stay a member of the Komsomol, but Slava himself was kicked out. Anton wants to add something else, but he realizes that he has already said too much and falls silent.

            Slava returns with a box full of champagne bottles and shouts how happy he is today. He offers everyone a drink.

            Guests rejoice and sing the song Easy Rider – this is Slava’s nickname. They sing that their friend is absolutely crazy, doesn't follow any rules and never gives up. At the end of the song, Slava and Alice dance together and almost kiss, but Denis suddenly appears.

            Denis introduces Alice: this is Alice Lavrentieva, his future wife, with whom he will go to the UK. Slava and Anton are stunned. Denis laughs at the funny coincidence and tells Alice how Slava met a girl with the same name the day before and fell in love. Anton sees that things are getting serious and calls Slava out a smoke: he himself doesn’t smoke, but is now ready to start. However, Slava does not move. Denis tells Alice why Slava is called Easy Rider. It turns out that a couple of years ago Slava and Denis took Denis’s dad’s official car without permission and crashed it. As in the situation with Anton and the radio, Slava took the blame and told the police that he was the one driving the car, which is why he got a suspended sentence, was kicked out of the university — and received his nickname. But it was actually Denis who was behind the wheel.

            Denis takes Slava aside and thanks him for what he did then, because if it weren’t for him, Denis would not be going to England now and would not be preparing to marry Alice, who turned out to be much more beautiful than he expected. Slava pushes Denis away with anger and, to everyone’s surprise, quickly runs out of the apartment. Alice follows him.

            Slava and Alice sing about their love for each other. A large trolleybus descends onto the stage. During the song, the young lovers climb onto the roof of the trolleybus, which rises above the stage. Slava and Alice urge each other not to be afraid of anything, because now they are together. At the end of the song the curtain comes down.

            Lavrentievs' apartment, night. On a small table littered with books and vinyl records in the corner of the stage the telephone rings. Professor Lavrentyev approaches it and answers the call. He hears Denis’s father who, apparently, blames Alice for suddenly rejecting his son and hanging out with someone else at night. The Professor is indignant: this simply can’t be true! His daughter is a very kind and decent girl and she is definitely in her bed now. At this moment, the curtain rises: Alice quietly creeps across the stage. Noticing her, Professor Lavrentyev quickly apologizes to Denis’s father and hangs up. He begins to scold his daughter for her reckless behavior towards Denis. The Professor points out that she has an opportunity to make her dream come true and live and study English literature in the native country of her favorite authors. Alice, with her head down, says that it really was her dream and she was ready to leave with Denis, but then she met another young man. Professor Lavrentyev asks if this guy is really worth giving up on her dreams, and Alice nods. Professor Lavrentyev accepts his daughter’s choice as he sees how happy she is and offers to call Denis’s father and tell him everything. Alice stops him: it’s late, everyone is tired and it’s better to wait till morning. Her father agrees, but instead of going to bed, he decides to water the flowers in the flowerbed under the windows, which he planted himself. Alice kisses her father good night, and he leaves.

            Alice is alone in the room when suddenly someone knocks on the window. With a smile, Alice runs up to the window and sees Slava, who is hanging on the windowsill with a bouquet of flowers in his teeth. Alice opens the window and Slava climbs into the room. Both laugh and Slava says that they urgently need to run to the registry office to get married, but no sooner has he finished the phrase than Alice’s father appears with a watering can. It appears that Slava and the Professor already know each other. It was to this man that Slava promised to find rare jazz records, but did not keep his promise. He takes a step forward and hands the flowers to the Professor. Alice’s father asks where exactly Slava got them, to which he blithely replies that he picked them from the flowerbed under the windows. Professor Lavrentyev gets angry because these are the flowers he planted, and angrily chases Slava away. Slava climbs onto the windowsill and jumps out the window.

            The Professor clutches at his heart in anger and worry. He doesn’t understand how Alice can like this swindler and rogue. He intends to report him to the police, but the girl panics and asks not to do that because Slava was expelled from the university and already got a suspended sentence, although he was only protecting his friend. Her father gets even angrier and says that Alice should write a letter to Slava, saying that they can’t be together, she has changed her mind and is going to go to the UK with Denis.

            Professor Lavrentyev leaves, and Alice, with tears in her eyes, writes the letter. At this time, Slava, still not knowing anything, is standing on the roof where he first met Alice and dreaming of their joyful future. The Professor appears downstairs, hands Slava a letter from his daughter and goes away.

            Slava runs downstairs to read the letter, becoming more and more miserable. He begins to sing about his unrequited love, and then leaves the stage. The song is continued by the ensemble artists, who, portraying various characters, share their stories about romantic heartbreaks. The scene ends with a gloomy Slava reappearing on stage, finishing reading the letter.

            Anton runs to Slava and asks how he feels about such an absurd coincidence: Slava and Denis are two best friends and there’s only one girl. Slava tries to look nonchalant and argues that everything is fine. Anton calms down a little, saying that now Alice and her father are visiting Denis to finally agree on everything. Slava, clearly up to something, suggests Anton to also go to their friend’s place to congratulate him. Anton is not sure if this is a good idea, but still follows Slava.

             Denis’s parents' apartment. Professor Lavrentyev, Alice, Denis, Kristina and their father are sitting silently at the table. Denis’s cheerful mother runs around the table and offers everyone treats. Suddenly the doorbell rings and the woman goes to open the door. Slava and Anton are standing on the threshold of the apartment.  Everyone feels an awkward tension. Slava begins to deliberately cheerfully joke and make sarcastic remarks, not allowing anyone to get a word in edgewise. He leans out of the open window and invites everyone from the street to celebrate Denis’s engagement. A lot of young people burst into the apartment.

 

            Slava sings irritably that Alice chooses money over personal happiness, although money is not the main thing in life. Guests are singing along, eating, drinking and having fun. Denis, his parents and Alice's father are sitting frozen at the table. At the end of the song, Slava grabs the TV set in rage. Everyone tries to stop him, but to no avail. Slava throws the TV out the window, right onto the roof of Denis’s father’s new car, which he was given instead of the one that Slava and Denis crashed.

            Slava, dressed as a sailor, swabs the deck of a Soviet navy ship somewhere in the ocean and sings that despite the fact that other countries are warm and beautiful, they don’t feel right for him. Other sailors join. Slava takes out a piece of paper and begins to write a letter, but in the end he crumples it and throws it overboard. Anton appears. He also serves as a sailor on this ship. Slava ended up in the navy because if he had not become a sailor and refused to serve the Soviet Union, he would have gone to prison, and Anton decided to try to become a real independent man. Anton laughs at the fact that Slava has already written a bunch of letters, but hasn’t sent anything.

            Slava and Anton engage in a friendly squabble. Slava again remembers Anton’s mysterious girlfriend and makes him promise that as soon as they return to Leningrad, he will go to her and confess his feelings.

            The ship's captain appears. He looks around at the sailors, mostly having fun with foreign girls. He announces that the ship is returning to Leningrad. All the sailors jump up, forgetting immediately about the girls.

            The sailors sing about how happy they are to finally go home. This song is also a farewell to their girlfriends from overseas. By the end of the song everyone lands in Leningrad.

            Slava and Anton are left alone on the snowy embankment, shaking from the cold – after all, it is the end of December, New Year is coming soon. But even despite the bad weather, they are glad to finally be home. Anton pats his friend on the shoulder and is ready to leave, but Slava reminds him of his promise: he must go to his beloved right away. Anton tries to come up with an excuse, but fails. He points to a random apartment building near them and says that his girl lives on the fifth floor. But her lights are out, she’s probably sleeping and they should not disturb her. Slava joyfully offers to sing a serenade: no one will dare to judge a sailor who has crossed the globe to sing under the windows of his beloved!

            Slava gives his guitar, which he took with him to the navy, to Anton, who hesitantly plucks the strings, catching the tune, and sings about his love for the girl who lives on the fifth floor. Slava sings along. Sleepy, dissatisfied neighbors show up on stage. They sing indignantly that it is four o’clock in the morning and they can’t fall asleep because Slava and Anton are standing here under the window and singing loudly. Slava tries to explain to everyone that they have a really good reason for doing that: his friend wants to confess his feelings. The neighbors become imbued with sympathy for the poor lover and join in. Everyone waits impatiently for the girl to open the window but nothing happens. Anton hesitantly says that perhaps she lives on the fourth floor. The neighbors look at him with disappointment and, muttering, disappear.

            A woman in home clothes, with perm rods in her hair and a facial mask put on, irritated by the loud noises, runs onto the stage. Slava and Anton recognize Kristina. Anton asks in bewilderment what she is doing here, and Kristina laughs at the stupidity of her friends: she lives in this house. It dawns on Slava and Anton that this is really Kristina’s house and they have visited her many times. All three of them go up to the apartment.

            Kristina offers her guests a cup of tea and tells how everything has changed since they left: she stopped throwing parties and secret gigs and dreams of finally making her own music show on television. Then Kristina says that she needs to call Denis and tell him that Anton and Slava have returned: Denis and his wife are in Leningrad, they live not far away and can quickly come join them. Slava is strongly against this idea, and Kristina understands that Denis and Slava have not communicated since their fight. At this moment, the door swings open and journalist Ivan runs in, asking Kristina to save him. He needs to write a script for his New Year's program: it turns out that he is now one of the best TV presenters. On New Year's Eve, a very respected person, Professor Lavrentiev, will take part in his TV show, so the man should be introduced with due respect. Kristina helps Ivan, writing an abstract about how incredible the Professor is. At this moment, Slava abruptly says that he will go out to smoke and runs out of the apartment. Ivan, sensing that something strange is happening, follows Slava, grabbing a video camera lying on the TV set along the way.

            Anton, left alone with Kristina, asks her why she still helps Ivan. He is sure that she is incredible herself, but then adds sheepishly — 'for television'. Kristina smiles sadly: if she hadn’t heard Anton serenading the girl from the fifth floor, she would have thought that he liked her. Anton thinks that he is ready to confess his feelings for Kristina, but at the last moment he changes his mind. Kristina begins to clear the table in frustration and Anton realizes that the moment has been lost.

            Anton sings that Kristina is an amazing girl he is ready to do anything for, but it seems to him that he is unworthy of her. Kristina continues the song on her own behalf. It turns out that she also likes Anton, but assumes that he simply doesn’t notice her.

            Meanwhile, Slava, standing with Ivan, starts telling that Professor Lavrentiev, in fact, is an awful person who sold his own daughter — directly into the camera. Ivan turns off the camera, takes out the tape, hides it in his pocket and runs away: he is sure that this tape will be talked about throughout the Soviet Union. Slava also wants to leave, but unexpectedly runs into Denis. He chaotically asks Slava for forgiveness and invites him to meet his wife. Slava is not eager, but suddenly a girl with a baby stroller appears on stage. Slava looks at her and realizes that it is not Alice, but Arina. Denis says that he always admired Slava and his courage. After Slava left for the navy, Denis told his father the whole truth about the crashed car and stated that he himself would choose who to marry. Thus, Denis is not a British diplomat now, but an ordinary school teacher. Slava joyfully hugs Arina, and then asks Denis where Alice is. He replies that she still lives with her father and they are both looking forward to meeting Slava again. At this moment, Slava realizes that everything he told Ivan about the professor was a lie, and rushes away.

            Lavrentievs' apartment. Alice appears on stage, decorating the Christmas tree. She sings that all wishes should come true in the New Year, that everything bad should remain in the past one. At the end of the song, someone knocks on the window, and Alice sees Slava shaking from the cold. She drags him into the apartment, wraps Slava in a blanket and gives him a heating pad.

            Alice is surprised, but incredibly happy to see Slava. He tells her that the Soviet Navy has a huge library, and thanks to this, he now understands English literature as perfectly as Alice does. But the girl is more interested not in whether he read the books, but whether he read the letters that she sent him, as there were more than a hundred of them! Moreover, most of them were written by her father, who wanted to apologize to Slava. Of course, Slava didn’t even open these letters. In panic, he admits to Alice that he told the journalist a lot of bad things about her father, and that his words will be broadcast on TV on New Year's Eve — but he can fix everything. With that, Slava rushes away, and Alice hurries to the phone and calls Kristina. Alice knows that she has connections on television and asks for help.

            In the Leningrad TV studio the New Year's show is being filmed. A female trio dressed as Snow Maidens sings a love song. To this song, the New Year's bustle is going on in the studio: editors, presenters, props people, cameramen, sound guys, magicians, etc. are running around. At some point, a cleaning lady accidentally appears in front of the cameras, and also starts to sing along, but is quickly chased away. The song ends.

            An assistant runs on stage and says that journalist Ivan, their main TV presenter, will now come to the studio. Everyone immediately freezes in anticipation. Ivan appears and swears that his TV make up was poorly done. The assistant calls the make-up artists, who start fixing his makeup. At the same time, the assistant informs Ivan that a young intern wants to interview him. An enthusiastic young girl dressed in the same way as the journalist Ivan in the first act of the musical runs up to him. She tells Ivan that she is his biggest fan and asks him to tell him how he managed to become so famous.

            Singing, Ivan describes his journey from an ordinary journalist to the best presenter on television. By the end of the song, all the television studio workers take off their work clothes and find themselves participating in a grandiose variety act in shiny gold dresses and suits. The song ends and everyone goes back to work.

            Kristina and Anton run into the studio. Ivan is noticeably frightened, but quickly pulls himself together. In exasperation, he demands that strangers should be removed from the set. Kristina asks Ivan to kindly give her the tape with Slava on it, but Ivan declares that no one will dare to stop him from telling the truth. Alice runs in with a guitar case in her hands and says that nothing on this tape is true: she is the Professor’s daughter, and no one sold her. Ivan continues to stand his ground, but then Kristina reminds him that it was she who wrote all the texts for him for the last five years. In response, Ivan shouts that this is a lie and insults Kristina. After this, Anton rushes at Ivan. A ridiculous brawl is interrupted by the film studio workers, pulling the opponents apart. During the brawl, the tape falls out of Ivan’s hands, but he picks it back up.

            One minute to air. Professor Lavrentiev appears in the studio and takes his place. At this moment Slava runs in and frantically tries to find a way to fix everything, but Anton says that one should know where to stop, and Alice kisses Slava.

            Live broadcast starts. Ivan says that now there is a real deceiver and hypocrite in the studio. The Professor is confused. Ivan plays the tape, but instead of angry Slava, Ivan himself appears on the screen, excitedly mooing a verse from Sara Bara Bu at Kristina’s party. Ivan shouts for the recording to be stopped immediately, but everyone laughs and pays no attention to him. Ivan runs away in shame.

            Slava can’t understand what just happened. Anton proudly takes another tape out of his pocket and says that it was he who replaced it in an unequal battle. Kristina laughs and says that this is her merit, since she came up with the plan. But Anton doesn’t let Kristina finish and unexpectedly kisses her. When they pull away from each other, the director shouts that the live broadcast is still on, but there is no presenter. Anton and Slava exchange glances and quickly push Kristina forward. At first she freezes, but then sits down in the presenter’s chair opposite the Professor.

            The video of Ivan is turned off, and Kristina tries to figure out how to explain what is happening to the TV audience. She says that Ivan said goodbye to the year of the cow with such a comic number and that now Kristina herself will be the new host. She starts to talk about Professor Lavrentiev, when he interrupts her. He says that a younger generation should take his place, not him with his stories about Ancient Greece. He calls Slava and Alice forward and introduces them. Professor Lavrentiev asks Slava for forgiveness and says that he himself used to behave in the same way when he was young. Slava is deeply touched and declares that he loves Alice very much, because she makes him a better and more mature person. The Professor objects and advises not to rush to grow up, because they have their whole life ahead of them. They should be happy and always believe in their dreams, in love and in miracles. Then the Professor says that he even prepared a gift for Slava, which is waiting for him at the Lavrentievs' apartment. However, Alice hands Slava a guitar case and says that he doesn't have to wait. Slava, bewildered, opens the case, thinking that his own guitar is in there, but there turns out to be a new one, which he has long dreamed of: a Rickenbacker guitar of the same model as John Lennon's. The Professor asks Slava to play.

            Slava plays the guitar and sings. Alice's father, Denis, Anton and all the other characters join him. The song is full of allusions to the other songs that were performed in the musical, it is filled with hope and faith in a bright future. At the end of the song the curtain falls.

            The curtain rises and, to the music, the company and then the main characters come upon stage. Everyone dances. At the end, everyone sings an excerpt of the song Fear Nothing, I’m with you.