Musical 'Rocky' may leave you punch
NEW YORK - At a recent preview of the new musical Rocky (**½ out of four stars), you knew the audience was pumped up when people started cheering for cracked eggs.
As it sometimes happens when a scene from a beloved movie is referenced on a Broadway stage, the crowd at the Winter Garden Theatre erupted into roars of gleeful recognition when Andy Karl - the actor cast as Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer about to get a shot at the world heavyweight championship - prepared and gulped down a raw concoction as part of his training regimen.
The hoots and hollers of approval continued through two montages in which Karl's Rocky runs, does push-ups and whacks punching bags, accompanied by action-packed videos and, in the second segment, a chorus of supporters singing Eye of the Tiger, the theme song for the third installment of the film series.
If you want to witness the Cinderella story that put Sylvester Stallone on the map elevated to new levels of bombast in a live production, then Rocky, which opened Thursday, will leave you similarly energized.
But this musical adaptation of the original 1976 film is actually at its most affecting when things quiet down a little - that is, when co-librettists Thomas Meehan and Stallone, composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens turn their attention to Rocky's less flamboyant, more awkward efforts as a man looking for love.
Terence Archie (as Apollo Creed) and Andy Karl (as Rocky Balboa) in a scene from the musical 'Rocky.'(Photo: Matthew Murphy)
The object of his affection, for anyone who hasn't seen the movie, is Adrian, the shy, bespectacled sister of Rocky's troubled buddy Paulie. In the musical, Adrian is played by Margo Seibert, a Broadway newcomer with a delicately compelling presence and a throbbing, textured singing voice that lets us hear the character coming out of her shell with Rocky's gentle encouragement.
Karl's performance is similarly adroit and appealing. Playing an iconic hero who has been the subject of caricature for nearly 40 years must have posed a considerable challenge, but under Alex Timbers' sensitive direction, Karl keeps the swagger to a minimum, emphasizing instead the mix of stoicism and insecurity and the fundamental decency that drew fans to the 'Italian Stallion' in the first place. Even his goofy jokes have an endearingly low-key, matter-of-fact quality.
Rocky's and Adrian's struggles to articulate their feelings would seem to provide rich opportunities for Flaherty and Ahrens, and they do deliver one graceful song early on, Raining, in which Adrian expresses both her romantic yearning and self-doubt.
But other numbers mix predictable sentiments with overheated rock accents. Rocky's grizzled trainer, Mickey (a plucky Dakin Matthews), is given a wistful waltz, In the Ring, to accommodate his age, while our hero's nemesis, Apollo Creed - played with suitable pomp by Terence Archie - gets to try to channel Isaac Hayes in the frantically thumping Patriotic.
Creed also has a mini-production number, Undefeated Man, just before the finale, which simulates a live boxing match, even bringing members of the audience in the center orchestra rows on stage. By then, you may feel a little punch-drunk yourself. Just don't say you weren't warned.
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