Somewhere in downtown Philadelphia, a down-and-out fighter named Rocky Balboa struggles to stay on his feet. But when the chance of a lifetime comes along, he takes his best shot at becoming a champion... and his last shot at finding first love.
The iconic underdog story Rocky has inspired an innovative new stage production, brought to extraordinary life by a five-time Tony Award-winning creative team, including director Alex Timbers (Peter and the Starcatcher), songwriting team Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime), and book writers Thomas Meehan (The Producers) and Sylvester Stallone (Rocky, the Oscar-winning Best Picture).
Both an adrenaline-infused spectacle and a surprising tale of blossoming romance between two lonely outsiders, Rocky is a visceral and heart-stopping theatrical experience for everyone brave enough to follow their dream.
Take the score, by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, who (as Ragtimedemonstrated) know their way around iconic Americana. They work very carefully here, slowly developing a general musical atmosphere with shards of sung dialogue before allowing the emergence of a straight-up song. But, boy, do you feel the work. Ahrens, scrambling for hooks that won't sound musical theaterish and twee, has actually found some, but they come at the cost of a certain outlandishness, like Rocky's introductory solo 'My Nose Ain't Broken.' Similarly, Flaherty has identified a reasonable sound for the gritty story: guitar-heavy, with throbbing-headache bass, and bright chrome-on-a-used-car flugelhorning as suggested by Bill Conti's original movie scores...But within that compelling sound Flaherty mostly fails to make compelling songs...But because garage-band writing, however apt for the material, doesn't develop but rather repeats in torpid cells, the songs don't lift: they barely even move. Instead, the set does.
The stage version, directed with immense panache and soaring physicality by Alex Timbers ('Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson'), is very nearly as good [as the movie], an unpretentious slice of honest entertainment whose rock-'em-sock-'em finale will set the snobbiest of theatergoers to cheering in spite of themselves...Mr. Timbers's staging and Christopher Barreca's scenic design are the stuff Tony nominations are made of. The neon-and-graffiti mean streets of South Philly are portrayed with grim verisimilitude, but the glitz starts to fly as the climactic fight scene draws nearer, and the fight itself is a total-immersion, spare-no-expense stage spectacle. Since Steven Hoggett and Kelly Devine are jointly credited with the show's choreography, I assume that they deserve much credit for the potency of this scene, which is a rich and masterly synthesis of movement, music and design. So yes, 'Rocky' is a straight-down-the-center commodity musical-but a damned fine one, maybe the best I've ever seen. A knockdown hit, in fact.
2011 | New York |
Workshop New York |
2014 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Andy Karl |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Steven Hoggett |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Kelly Devine |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Alex Timbers |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design | Christopher Akerlind |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Musical | Rocky |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Set Design | Christopher Barreca |
2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical | Peter Hylenski |
2014 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Margo Seibert |
2014 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Andy Karl |
2014 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Rocky |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Andy Karl |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Book of a Musical (Broadway of Off-Broadway) | Rocky |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Choreographer | Steven Hoggett |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Choreographer | Kelly Devine |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Alex Timbers |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Musical | Rocky |
2014 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Set Design (Play or Musical) | Christopher Barreca |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Choreography | Steven Hoggett |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Choreography | Kelly Devine |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | Christopher Akerlind |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical | Andy Karl |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Musical | Christopher Barreca |
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