Rebecca Staley as Oksana and Mat Arruda as Vakula the Blacksmith in The Tsarina’s Booties, a musical adaptation of a short story by Nicolai Gogol, at Perishable Theatre in Providence.

David Eliet’s new musical, The Tsarina’s Booties, is a Russian tale through and through, a story about a blacksmith who sets out to win the hand of a vain village beauty. It’s got a witch, a devil, crazy Cossacks and no shortage of vodka. The Cossacks, in fact, sing the praises of the drink at one point.

The show, with music by Nancy Rosenberg, is also hot off the presses. Rosenberg was running copies of the opening number just last week — just in time for a concert showing this weekend at Perishable Theatre on Empire Street. That means there will be no sets or costumes. The emphasis, said Eliet, will be on the music and the characterizations.

Eliet, whose last effort was last year’s But for the Grace … based on interviews with Rhode Islanders facing the specter of hunger, first wrote this adaptation of a Nicolai Gogol short story back in 2002 for the Little Globe Theatre in Kirovograd, Ukraine. He directed the play there in 2005 while on a Fulbright grant.

Then last summer, while talking about future projects with his longtime collaborator Rosenberg, it was decided the Gogol story would make a great musical. The two have been hard at work on the project for the last 10 months. Rosenberg has produced eight songs so far, and plans to add a couple more at a later date.

The plot is typical of Gogol, the 19th-century author of Dead Souls, which is to say somewhat convoluted, full of subplots and more than a little fantastical.

A blacksmith named Vakula is hopelessly in love with the stuck-up Oksana, who can’t be bothered with him. If he wants to marry her, she says half jokingly, do the impossible and bring her a pair of Katherine the Great’s booties. Vakula manages to trick the devil into helping procure the shoes and, in the end, when it looks as though all is lost, things turn out for the best.

The Gogol story is called The Night Before Christmas, or Christmas Eve. But Eliet changed the name so audiences wouldn’t think it’s just a holiday show. He said the story is as popular in Ukraine as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is here.

Eliet and Rosenberg have been collaborating for more than 20 years. When he was running Perishable Theatre back in the 1980s, the two wrote nine musicals for children, one of which was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Eliet said the show is a little racy and therefore not recommended for children. “It’s a PG-13 show,” he said.

The Perishable run is a short one, from tomorrow night through Sunday. Eliet said he has invited representatives from theaters from around the region to come take a look at the show with the hope that someone might be interested in mounting a full production, something not suited for Perishable’s tiny black-box space.

Shows tomorrow and Saturday are at 7 p.m. and a Sunday matinee takes place at 3 p.m. Tickets are $10, $5 for students and seniors. Call (401) 725-0248 for reservations, or e-mail the_tsariana@yahoo.com.

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cgray@projo.com