Few will argue with the notion that Gogol's The Inspector General is as good as Russian comedy gets. In print or onstage, it captures, amazes and stays in your memory. In his theatrical masterpiece, Gogol forced his contemporaries to laugh at things they had grown used to and stopped noticing. He wrote, "In the Inspector, I decided to pile together all that I knew to be evil in Russia – all the injustices that take place precisely when and where justice is most needed – and to make a mockery of them all at once."

The play had some trouble on its road to success. Its opening night on April 19, 1836 in St. Petersburg was attended by Czar Nicholas I himself. His Majesty enjoyed the play, and it is thought that his good will towards a "risky" comedy eventually prevailed over the doubts of the censors. Prohibited at first, The Inspector General had won its appeal to the royal graces and was granted permission to be staged. Many of its lines have since become "quotable quotes" in Russia, and the names of its characters have come to define a variety of human frailities.

(No longer in repertory)