Characteristics of the main topic. The article examines the applied imperatives of the development of musical theater in Ukraine based on the analysis of the Odessa Academic Theater of Musical Comedy named after M. Vodyanyi. Formulation of the problem.The problems of musical theater are acutely actualized in the modern public consciousness due to a number of factors. First of all, the musical theater, being a powerful representative of official art, represents the state's level of prosperity. Hence the high level of investment in any significant production, which allows to demonstrate material capabilities in providing appropriate decorative design, costumes, involvement of highly professional actors, etc. Based on this, musical theater appears as an engine for the development of technical, aesthetic, artistic means and all the components that make up a work of art. On the other hand, musical theater always, due to its special position in society, inevitably faces the need for experimentation at any level, starting with large-scale, grandiose spectacles that have no analogues in other forms of art, and ending with the most sophisticated chamber experiments, designed for a small circle of connoisseurs. In spite of such applied diversity, in the scientific research world there is a tradition of studying the achievements of musical theater from the point of view of one of its components, music. And the theatrical side of the realization of the composer's opus intended for the stage has been studied to a much lesser extent, which makes it necessary to solve this problem.The purpose of the research is to determine the applied imperatives for the development of musical theater in Ukraine based on the analysis of the Odessa Academic Theater of Musical Comedy named after M. Vodyanyi.Generalized results. The generalization of the existing scientific work on the development of musical theater in Ukraine made it possible to establish the ramifications of the opinions of various authors regarding the stages and features of the development of theatrical art, in view of which, the author's periodization of development on the example of the Odessa Academic Theater of Musical Comedy, which is based on a documentary-historical approach, is proposed in the study. This made it possible to track significant events and establish cause-and-effect relationships between developmental stages and directorial input. The article describes the characteristic features of each of the five stages. It has been proven that these features directly depend on the directors of the theater, as well as political, cultural, demographic, geographical and other conditions of existence. All this created prerequisites for the development of author's proposals for the further development of musical theater in Ukraine, which boil down to the formation of organizational and methodological support.