Bye bye bye to the Backstreet Boys?

Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys just finished playing Billy Flynn in the Broadway production of "Chicago" and plans to reprise his role soon when the play hits London.

Nick Carter of the group just finished a tour and is working on his second solo project.

Howie Dorough is working on his first solo album that will have songs in English and Spanish and is taking acting classes with Richardson.

Brian Littrell is busy helping his wife take care of their 6-month old, has been working on various charity projects and was host of the Atlanta Heroes Awards.

And the fifth Backstreet Boy, A.J. McLean - well, he continues his battle to stay sober after his engagement to singer Sarah Martin fell apart. His mother, Denise, has written a book about her son's struggles and rise to fame.

Each project involves a Backstreet Boy, but not the Backstreet Boys.

So, will the pop phenomenon ever be back?

"Ah ... when the time is right," Richardson said during a recent interview in Huntsville in a limo and at the Heritage Club on Washington Street.

Richardson was in town to drum up support for an entertainment complex at the site of the current MarketSquare Shopping center. Richardson, Dorough and financial advisor Rick Baker of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, in partnership with Marty Belz and Bruce Burrow of the Memphis-based Peabody Hotel Group, have been trying to get the project off the ground for three years.

"Right now, we are all pursuing our own endeavors, giving time for each other to do that," Richardson, 31, said of his relationship with his other bandmates. "When the time is right, and everybody's heart is in the right place, and everybody's heart is focused on us as a group again, then we'll do it."

Some question whether their young fans have already said farewell to boy bands like the Backstreet Boys, N'Sync and O-Town. Producer Lou Pearlman of Trans Continental Records, who created those bands from scratch, isn't one of them.

"People ask me when boy bands will be over," he said on a Web site. "I tell them 'when God stops making little girls.'" Hundreds of postings on fan Web sites support the Backstreet Boys and beg them not to quit.

Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar magazine, one of the concert industry's most respected publications, said it's really tough to know if the Backstreet Boys have run their course.

"In general, the career span of nearly every teen pop artist is very limited, three to five years," Bongiovanni said. "And, when you go away from the scene for a while, it's tough to figure out how much of the audience is there.

"If the Backstreet Boys or N'Sync take off two years, when their audience is teens and pre-teens, and their attention spans are short, it's easy to go on to the next big thing. And, when they come back, you don't know if they're still fans. At their age, what's ultra-cool and not cool changes overnight."

Bongiovanni mentioned the New Kids on the Block as a group from the late '80s that was hot and then cooled quickly.

"It's really a strange phenomenon," Bongiovanni said. "You've seen it historically. The New Kids on the Block had a stadium tour and sold a huge number of tickets. Two years later, they couldn't sell out a club tour.

"Anytime you stay off the scene for a while, you become suspect. You just never really know. I'm not saying N'Sync or Backstreet Boys are dead acts, but I think you pretty well saw their peak a few years ago.

"You just don't see the dominance of the teen pop phenomenon. There's only one big tour this summer - Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera. What's replaced the Lou Pearlman-manufactured bands is 'American Idol.' That's another thing that's serving that (teen) market."

Fans became optimistic about a Backstreet reunion when the guys got together on March 20 in Los Angeles. As Richardson told MTV News, "We're just going to get in the studio, start creating and see what happens."

The project would have been the first album for the group since 2000's "Black and Blue" and members had expressed interest in working with producers like Jermaine Dupri, Glen Ballard and Babyface. Seven days later the group released a statement: "As a group, we have decided not to record our next album at this time. We are not breaking up, but individually we are currently at different places in our lives."

Richardson said it just didn't feel right.

"We just didn't really feel like everybody's priorities were there," he said. "It was just the state of the world and everybody wanted to spend time with their families. You know, we just didn't feel inspired to make music."

And Dorough added this as he and Richardson addressed about 200 enthusiastic fans recently at Madison Square Mall: "Four months ago, we decided to take some down time, give each other space to grow. It's kinda like the Eagles or Steven Tyler and Aerosmith. You need some down time to maintain your career. We've been on the road 10 years and I think it's good and healthy. We're not breaking up."

It sounds like Richardson, Dorough and his mates may have started to move on from the Backstreet Boys after a decade together, sales of 65 million records and wealth totaling some $37 million. In fact, a report in US Weekly in March said the group was going back into the studio to "work on the last Backstreet Boys album" and follow that up with a farewell tour.

If the group's performing career ended tomorrow, Richardson seems prepared. In addition to the role in "Chicago," for which he received rave reviews from the New York critics, he started his own environmental protection foundation, Just Within Reach. He also owns his own music production company, as well as Blue Jay Recording Studios in Boston - a 25-year-old facility that has recorded the likes of Boston, Aerosmith and Amy Grant. Richardson is hoping to do more acting in plays and films.

"I'm just taking a look at opportunities as they come to me," Richardson said. "Music is always going to be a part of my life."

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