Rocky – Winter Garden Theatre, New York

Andy Karl in Rocky at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York. Picture: Matthew Murphy

Rocky continues at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York, in an open-ended run.

It’s another pulse-quickening, eye moistening opportunity to root for the underdog, as Rocky Balboa makes it to the Broadway stage in epic fashion. The small-time boxer who’s given the chance of a lifetime to show his stuff in a championship fight first came to life in the 1976 movie, Rocky, written by and starring an unknown Sylvester Stallone. While the character Rocky didn’t take the crown in the ring, he put up a valiant fight, and the film went on to be the box-office champion of the year and win three Oscars, including one for Best Picture. In its wake, came five sequels. Now it’s a Broadway musical, and please forgive me for resorting to the obvious, but it’s simply the most apt way to say it: the show is a knock-out.

Initially produced last year in Hamburg, Germany, Rocky has a book by the aforementioned Stallone and Thomas Meehan, a veteran of the Broadway musical wars, having picked up three Tony Awards for his scripts for Annie, The Producers and Hairspray. Their book for Rocky is a concise narrative, retaining the heart and grit of Stallone’s screenplay, giving pretty much equal weight to the two central characters, Rocky and his similarly downtrodden girlfriend Adrian.

It also leaves plenty of room for the show’s solid score by the team of composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens, known for such varied pieces as Ragtime and Once On This Island. Their work is in a conventional musical theatre mode, including well-wrought character-defining meditations alongside rousing power ballads. (In case you’re wondering, the film’s familiar signature theme by Bill Conti is quoted only fleetingly.)

The show‘s greatest not-so-secret weapon, however, is the genius staging of director Alex Timbers, abetted by choreographers Steven Hoggett and Kelly Devine, scenic designer Christopher Barreca and a host of other creative team members. Timbers, whose avant-garde-cum-hiphop approach has defined such shows as Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, here restrains his more aggressive tendencies in favour of straight-on, fluid storytelling, enhanced by cinematic-style montage.

The sequences in which we see Rocky training for the big fight are awe-inspiring, a mix of live action and video projection, against Barreca’s monumental sets, and the climactic battle between Rocky and the champion Apollo Creed is a jaw-dropping coup de theatre. Audience members in the first five centre rows of the theatre are shepherded out of their seats and onto the stage, so that the boxing ring can glide off the stage and take their place, creating an arena environment, igniting excitement. While this is happening, the announcers perched high above the set in their broadcast booth carry on about their expectations for the fight. You can smell the blood lust.

Of course, Timbers – even with all this high-tech stagecraft – couldn’t pull the show off without the perfect cast, and he has one. Andy Karl takes on the title role in an heroic performance, a compelling mixture of rough-hewn manliness and vulnerability, struggling to shore up his foundering self-respect. And he amplifies those characteristics tellingly in his musical numbers. They include such titles as ‘My Nose Ain’t Broken’, in which he describes the various ailments his unspectacular boxing career has left him with, and his big declaratory promise to ‘Fight From the Heart’.

As Adrian, Margo Seibert is deeply appealing, convincingly limning the character’s journey from withdrawn shopgirl to Rocky’s rock-strong supporter. The moment in which she finds her own self-confidence in telling off her abusive brother drew prolonged applause and cheers from the audience, almost matching the response to the big fight scene.

As Creed, Terrence Archie gives the champion a likeable boisterous boastfulness, and he sizzles James Brown-style in his production number ‘Patriotic’, as he declares his decision to defend his title against a lowly, unknown contender exemplifies the American dream. There are also fine contributions from Dakin Matthews, as the fight club manager who takes over Rocky’s training, and Danny Matrogiorgio as Adrian’s brother, who also happens to be Rocky’s on and off best pal. And as they all in the end get together to cheer Rocky’s pluck and stamina, you may well want to join the ovation.

Ron Cohen

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