Russian theatre shelves 'offensive' Jesus musical

RUSSIA: A theatre in southern Russia has stopped selling tickets to the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" after prosecutors launched a probe into whether it is offensive to devout Christians, officials said Saturday.

Saint Petersburg's Rock Opera company was to perform the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical -- a 1970s classic that has been regularly performed in Russia -- at the Philharmonic in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don on October 18.

However prosecutors launched a probe after a group of local residents complained that the musical presented a distorted image of Jesus Christ.

"A probe is under way, and subsequently the appropriate decision will be taken," a spokesperson for the Rostov prosecutors told the Interfax news agency.

NTV television said ticket sales had been stopped pending the outcome of the probe.

"We are shocked that someone has demanded that the musical be cancelled," an employee of the Philharmonic told the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily. "We will be told on Monday whether it is going ahead."

The employee said the show had already been performed in Rostov five times and had been sold out on the last occasion.

The complaint, sent by 18 local residents to the prosecutors and theatre, said that the "image of Christ presented in the opera is false from the point of view of Christianity", local media reported.

"As it stands, the work is a profanation," it added.

The controversy over the performance comes at a time of heightened tensions in Russia been religious believers and secular activists after the conviction of feminist punk rockers Pussy Riot for performing in the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

"This show has been performed by our theatre for 20 years," one of Rock Opera's actresses Maria Klimova was quoted as saying by the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets.

AFP