REVIEW: Rocky, Wintergarden Theatre ✭✭✭

Photo: Sara Krulwich Rocky

Winter Garden Theatre

9 April 2014

3 Stars

One's belief that any topic can provide the foundation for a good musical can be, like a fine cocktail, shaken or stirred depending on what is being served up.

Now playing at Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre is Rocky, a musical adaptation of the famous Sylvester Stallone film. Written by Thomas Meehan and Stallone, with music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Aherns, Rocky is unique. Certainly, I have never seen anything like it before.

It's directed by Alex Timbers who, quite frankly, does an astonishing job. There are many disparate elements here, but Timbers finds a way to package them into a coherent whole. There is a lot of flashy multi-media at work and, in the Second Act, part of the auditorium is transformed, punters moved and the ring brought out into the centre of the auditorium. It is a meticulously orchestrated movement and, tonight anyway, flawlessly done.

There is a cinematic fluidity brought to the scene changes generally, which works to appease fans of the film and keep things moving for those who expect something more than a smudge for a storyline in a theatrical performance.

The pace never flags. Timbers propels the interest levels and the final boxing fight is quite dazzling, brilliantly choreographed (Steven Hoggett and Kelly Devine choreograph) and performed.

I cannot sufficiently recall the film to say, but comments from fellow audience members seem to indicate that the plot here is both faithful to and divergent from the film. Certainly, there were key moments which elicited audience acclaim, presumably because they mirrored iconic moments from the film. One such moment was when Andy Karl's Rocky downed three raw eggs in one swallow. The crowd went wild - in much the same way as they usually do when Momma Rose sings "I had a dream" in Gypsy.

Karl gives an extraordinary performance as Rocky. He is utterly believable as the dumb Italian Stallion who practices his fist work on hanging carcasses of beef; his commitment to the physical demands of the role worthy of a Tony Award in itself.

But Karl can also sing and act - very well. He is sympathetic throughout, a simple dreaming bumbler. And his enchantment with the shy Adrian (Margot Seibert) is beautifully played. He is a winner in every sense here.

Seibert is equally impressive. Her transformation from dowdy wallflower to pretty woman-in-Red is carefully, sensitively charted and she is delightful all the way. There is nothing not to like here.

Dakin Matthews gives excellent support as the gruff gym owner, Mickey, who has issues with Rocky but wants to help him in the end. Terence Archie is perfect as Apollo Creed, the reigning champion Rocky is inexplicably given the chance to fight.

Danny Mastrogiorgio is the weakest link; his drunken loutish brother to Adrian is as forgettable and implausible as Broadway performances go.

But the real problems here lie in the book, which is far too fragmented for a stage show, and the score which, although mostly pleasant and inoffensive, does not seem coherent and is replete of show-stopping ballads, anthems or duets. There are much worse scores for musicals, but for a first tier work, Flaherty and Ahrens have turned in a score as pedestrian as can be imagined.

Partly, one assumes, the difficulty here has been tying a score around the popular theme tune from the Movie which, when it appears, is as dazzling and fresh and exciting as it ever was. Nothing Ahrens and Flaherty do here comes close. There are good numbers - Fight from the Heart, Happiness, I'm Done and Adrian - but nothing anyone will remember five minutes after hearing it.

This is more spectacle than musical theatre; more play with music than musical; more staged film than musical theatre. But it has a lot of heart and some very winning performances.

Importantly, and this should not be discounted, this production will bring new people to the theatre. Certainly no one sitting anywhere near me had ever been to the the theatre before - and they all loved it. So, if nothing else, it is finding a new audience for live performance.

It will leave you neither shaken not stirred, but it won't suck the life from you either.