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Concept
Nord-Ost
Summary
Nord-Ost (Норд-Ост, means "North-East" in German) is a Russian musical theatre production that was composed by Aleksei Ivaschenko and Georgii Vasilyev, based on the novel The Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin. It is a fictional story based around the historical events surrounding the discovery of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago in 1913. The musical was first staged on October 19, 2001 in the Dubrovka theatre, where it played over 400 performances.
The play celebrates the Russian soldiers who fought in World War II.
In the 1990s Georgy Vasiliyev saw Les Misérables in New York City, and felt inspired to take theatre to Russia. He tried to buy the rights to Les Misérables but did not succeed, so he decided to start a homegrown Russian production. He spent funds to convert a former ball-bearing factory "culture hall" into a modern theatre. He spent US15 each, making them relatively expensive. Vasiliyev showed his financiers a marketing study stating that 30% of Moscow's population fit the profile audience that would be willing to pay for the production, due to changing sensibilities and increasing incomes. The Russian theatre community had a prejudice against this kind of play. Peter Baker and Susan Glasser said that the Russian theatre community "considered the concept the thespian version of McDonald's".
Vasiliyev said "Nord-Ost was a sort of protest against tarnishing our history, against not believing in your own strength, against all this pervasive, depressing, ugly stuff in mass media. Nord-Ost is the opposite. It's a romantic story about family. It's a story that elevates us and our history. It's a story that enables us to look at our history not as the history of class struggle, wars, and repressions, but a history of people and personal achievements".
Moscow theater hostage crisis
On October 23, 2002 Chechen terrorists took the audience hostage in the Moscow theater that was showing the production of Nord-Ost, threatening to blow up the building and demanding withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
Official source
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