Surviving hostages ask to be allowed to "watch the musical to the end"

On Tuesday, December 24th, the Moscow Theatre Centre in Dubrovka Street began selling tickets to the musical "Nord-Ost," reported Georgy Vasilyev, the General Producer and one of the authors of the musical.

According to Vasilyev, the premiere of the resumed musical is likely to take place in early February. At this moment, the building of the Theatre Centre is being renovated after the October terrorist act.

The musical's troupe is fully staffed, but the general producer is selecting new actors for the adults' and children's troupes so that there is a reserve of actors for the travelling version of "Nord-Ost." Vasilyev said some of the former hostages have asked the producing company, Link, to be allowed to "watch the musical to the end." According to his words, the tickets Muscovites and guests of the capital had purchased for the shows that were to have run between October 23rd and November 31st are still valid and can be exchanged for new ones without paying an extra fee.

The show of October 23rd was interrupted in the beginning of the second act, when terrorists seized the Theatre Centre, announcing that the audience, the actors and all the employees that were in the building were their hostages. A special operation conducted on the morning of October 26th liberated more than 750 hostages. The terrorists were killed. Fatalities among the hostages amounted to 129 people.

The premiere of the Russian classical musical "Nord-Ost," staged by Georgy Vasilyev and Alexei Ivashchenko and based on Veniamin Kaverin's famous novel, "Two Captains," took place on October 19th, 2001. Since then, the show was watched by a total of 352,000 spectators.