Russian musical that was interrupted by deadly hostage-taking r

MOSCOW -- A romantic Russian musical closed nearly a year ahead of schedule Saturday, unable to win back audiences after a hostage-taking raid last fall that left 129 people dead.

Chechen gunmen seized the theater on Oct. 23 during the second act of the musical extravaganza "Nord-Ost" and took about 800 people hostage.

For the next 58 hours, the captives sat in the theater's plush red seats, using the orchestra pit for a toilet. Men with automatic rifles and women dressed in black robes with explosives around their waists stood watch, and a huge bomb was rigged in the middle of the auditorium.

Russian special forces pumped a narcotic gas into the theater to knock out the hostage-takers. They then stormed the building and killed the 41 gunmen. Some 129 hostages also died -- most from the effects of the gas.

The show's creators vowed to revive it, and the Moscow city government provided $2.5 million to refurbish the ruined theater. The cast resumed daily performances in February, but the building's notoriety proved too much to overcome. The show that once played to packed houses has had difficulty filling half the seats.

"We are closing because of the terrorists -- it is quite evident," the musical's producer and co-author, Georgy Vasilyev, told Associated Press Television News. "We lost most of our potential audience. The psychological barrier is too big for many."

Vasilyev was among the 76 "Nord-Ost" staff members -- including actors, musicians and supporting staff -- taken hostage in October. The show lost 18 people, including two child actors.

Actor Oleg Golub said that since the hostage crisis he has experienced a pang of anxiety during every performance when the show came to "the pilots' scene." It was during this number by tap-dancing pilots at the beginning of the second act that the gunmen took the stage.

"Time and hard work heal, but still every time we play the pilots' scene -- where it all happened -- something inside me freezes," he told Russia's NTV television station.

Vasilyev said the musical, which had been running for a little more than a year at the time of the hostage crisis, was originally intended to run for 2 1/2 years. Saturday's show was the 411th performance.

Despite the end of the show's daily run in Moscow, Vasilyev is developing a touring version with portable sets. Meanwhile, part of the cast will depart immediately to perform a concert version of the show in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and the Baltic nations, show spokeswoman Darya Morgunova said.

"Nord-Ost," which means "Northeast" in German and in the language of Russian sailors, is based on "Two Captains," a classic Russian 1944 novel by Veniamin Kaverin. It tells the story of Sanya, an orphan who falls in love with Katya, the daughter of a polar explorer who disappeared on an expedition. Sanya grows up to become a World War II pilot and, during an emergency stop in the Arctic, solves the mystery of Katya's father's disappearance.

Vasilyev, a successful businessman, wrote the music and libretto with Alexei Ivashchenko. A well-known song-writing duo, the two had long been fans of American musicals and dreamed of staging a show in the Broadway tradition.