BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- The Kennedy Center's revival of "Ragtime" will shutter on Broadway on Sunday, according to media reports Tuesday.

    The 8.5 million dollar production, a streamlined version of the 1998 original, and directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, ultimately failed to garner the kind of box office momentum. By the time it closes this weekend at the Neil Simon Theatre, it will have run for about 60 performances.

    The musical is an adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's kaleidoscopic novel about the transformation of American society at the turn of the 20th century. 
  
    That the revival, which opened last April at the center's Eisenhower Theater, is the first show created by the Kennedy Center to move to Broadway. The show moved to New York with its look and most of the Washington cast intact, and opened on Nov. 15.

    The center had spent 4.4 million dollars on the musical's Washington engagement, but the money for the Broadway production was raised by the show's New York producers. Ultimately, the high running costs -- more than 500,000 dollars a week -- were perceived as insurmountable, even after the show's creators and others agreed to reduce their weekly takes. 

    (Agencies)