Russian Musical "Nord Ost" Goes on Foreign Tour

Concert tours of the "Nord Ost" musical troupe will start on Wednesday in Vilnius.

The Russian troupers will also give performances in Tallinn, Riga, Kiev, Kharkov, Zaporozhye, Odessa, Minsk and Warsaw, the musical's press service reported. The concert tour aimed at showing the audience "Nord Ost - Love Story" including the best scenes from the musical is scheduled to finish on June 27th.

From October 19th 2001 to May 10th 2003 the stationary version of "Nord Ost" was performed 411 times in Moscow. Then Moscow performances finished, though, according to the musical's general producer Georgy Vasilyev, "Nord Ost" had not made up for the primary investment to stage the musical, create the scenery and equip the theatre.

According to him, when launching everyday performances in the autumn 2001, the "Nord Ost" troupe intended to work for three winters and two summers. However, the situation changed after the tragedy, when in October of 2002 terrorists took hostages at the Theatre Centre in Dubrovka, where the musical ran. "This resulted in a financial collapse of the project," Vasilyev pointed out. The "Nord Ost" general producer also gave sociological statistics showing that many "potential" spectators had preferred not to see the musical after October of 2002.

"Unfortunately, under the circumstances we were not able to continue the performances in Moscow," a co-author of "Nord Ost", art director of the project Alexey Ivaschenko stated. "The most disappointing fact is that no one will ever see the performance as it was shown in Moscow. The musical no longer exists." Ivashchenko pointed out that the troupe was currently staging a mobile version of "Nord Ost". It is supposed to be ready in early 2004.

Although "Nord Ost" is no longer on in Moscow, Ivaschenko is convinced that "the troupe did a good job", as over 400,000 people saw the musical in Moscow. After February 2003 alone, when the musical was revived, the troupe gave over 100 performances.

Lev Aksenov, RIAN