Pleasures & Pastimes

Pleasures & Pastimes

The Arts

Gone are the days when the Bolshoi Theater and the Moscow Art Theater ruled the cultural life of Russia's capital. Moscow's arts scene has taken a decidedly adventurous turn, with smaller, innovative theater companies and musical ensembles giving the old standbys a run for their money. Musicians, writers, and directors have long since flung off their rigid, state-imposed chains and are now creating everything from glitzy musicals to experimental dramas. Several theater troupes are also restaging Russian classics in an effort to inject new life into the pieces. Moscow now also hosts the International Chekhov Theater Festival, an innovative and increasingly popular competition.

Churches & Monasteries

All over Moscow, churches are being painted, refurbished, polished, resurfaced, and, in some cases, rebuilt from the ground up. At almost every turn you'll run into a church surrounded by scaffolding on which diligent artisans are tending to the rebirth of Orthodoxy. Many of these restoration projects are already finished, and one of the joys of meandering through the city is suddenly happening upon the gleaming cupolas and brightly painted facade of a church from the Moscow baroque period. Brief services are conducted throughout the day in many of these churches, most of which are open to the public from 8 AM to 8 PM. There are also several splendid monastery complexes within the city limits; others, including the venerated Sergiev-Posad (Zagorsk), are just a day trip away.

A Dining Scene on the Rise

From the state-run restaurants (once the only choice available), to the collectively-owned cooperatives that followed perestroika, to the present era in which thousands of restaurants now proliferate, the changes in the dining scene have been nothing short of astonishing. Whereas in the early to mid-'90s you would have been hard-pressed to find any decent -- let alone outstanding -- food, there's no such shortage now. You can pick and choose from a cornucopia of cafés, restaurants, and food-serving bars. The contrasts, however, may leave you a bit wobbly. At a small restaurant you might experience the discomforts of Soviet management techniques, but right up the same street there may be an establishment so elegant it could compete in Paris or New York.

Nightlife

Moscow's nightlife scene exploded in the mid-'90s with stories of debauchery and excess. After-hours life has mellowed and matured since then; clubs have become safer, and service has improved. Evenings on the town are still wild, however, and Russians love to cut a rug, regardless of whether they can dance. The sleazy casinos and seedy erotic clubs that gave the city its off-color reputation are still plentiful, but Moscow is attempting to emulate Paris, New York, and London by developing a chic clubbing scene with an emphasis on exotic, expensive interiors and rigid face control. Plenty of plain old bars and live-music clubs also continue to crop up around town, as do places playing international Top 40 and Russian pop hits. A fledgling gay-and-lesbian scene has slowly been gaining steam, but these clubs tend to fold more frequently than those on the mainstream entertainment circuit.