Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Али-Баба и сорок разбойников) is a Soviet/Russian comedy musical based on the fairytale of the same name, with lyrics by Veniamin Smekhov and music by Sergey Nikitin and Viktor Berkovsky. An audio recording was made in 1981 and a televised version in 1983.
According to Smekhov's interviews, he decided to produce a piece inspired both by his love for actual Persian poetry and his love for deliberately amateurish-style performances. The result was an instant hit running on Rule of Funny and extremely catchy songs.
The musical contains examples of:
- Adapted Out: The Passer-by appears in both the stage version and the audio version, but is absent from the film.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Mustafa frequently addresses the audience, and in the last scene, Hassan, who in the plot has just been killed, interrupts him to correct his translation.
- Card-Carrying Villain: The robbers gleefully sing that they are an evil gang.
- Composite Character: The roles of Kasim's wife and slave girl Morgiana from the original fairytale are combined into a single character, Kasim's wife Fatima.
- Distinction Without a Difference: Kasim's calculations in the cave of treasures on how much he will take from there:"Ten mules, each loaded with two chests —Wouldn't it be too little?Two mules, each loaded with ten chests —Wouldn't it be too much?"
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: The unambiguously good and innocent characters are all only dressed in the lighter colors (white for Mustafa, white and pale brown for Ali Baba, bright yellow for Zainab). The less scrupulous ones, although their clothes can have streaks of yellow in the color scheme, always favor dark colors or red.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Used to the extreme in the televised version. Muhammad chopping off Ahmed's head is shown as Muhammad just waving his sword in the air with Ahmed nowhere in sight (except with the obviously stage-prop severed head is briefly shown later).
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Ali Baba asks Zainab to stay quiet, all the while talking loudly himself.
- Fatima asks Zainab why the latter wastes so many words... before lapsing into her own Motor Mouth tirade.
- When the robbers sing how no one is humbler than Hassan, Hassan replies that this verse is very truthful.
- Innocent Soprano: Sweet, kind and naive Zainab is a soprano.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: When Hassan approaches Ali Baba disguised as a traveler with forty jars of oil, the robbers actually hiding in said jars sing the chorus to Hassan's song.
- Rhyming with Itself: As part of the Rule of Funny, many lines rhyme simply by ending with the same word.
- Shown Their Work: Veniamin Smekhov is an admirer of Persian poetry, and he shows it, bringing up actual references to Iranian culture.
- Undying Loyalty: Fatima becomes fiercely loyal to Ali Baba after he takes her in following her husband's death.
