Rocky Previews
Mar 19
2014, 12:03:23 AM
I just saw it tonight with my wife (6th row right orchestra) and must admit I was disappointed, as much as I wanted to enjoy the show and as big a fan I am of the songwriting team's past work. The whole thing felt like a bit of a corporate "pander" in the manner in which it depended so entirely upon scenes, dialogue, moods and emotions lifted "whole cloth" from the original movie (down to the overly "literal"-looking sets). I understand that the presumption is that the audience wants to see the "Rocky" they knew from the movies, but this was kind of ridiculous - I felt like it was more like a "theme-park"-type attraction where they didn't dare veer at all or add anything to the original script (though I'm aware that there were a few changes here and there, as well as omissions). As far as the music, there were a few nice moments, but I was surprised at the extent to which they choose "medium pop ballads" as the style of choice (70's influenced at times to reflect the intended era), which gave them a surprising sense of pacing "sameness". Of course, they had to use the original musical themes from the movie(s) to some extent, but for some reason they struck me as more "tacked on", and quite different in sensibility from the newer fare - to me it felt like it might have been better for the new songs to have been woven more organically into the "old", classic themes, and to have captured more of the previous score's spirit (which was a fantastic movie score). I don't even know what to say about the use of "Eye of the Tiger", and the "Rocky training" scene to me failed to differentiate between the first time he climbed the steps (where he was still "out of shape"), and the climactic last time (when he bounded up the steps triumphantly, etc.) - with all the bells and whistles, both events felt too similar (IMHO)…Finally, the ending fight scene struck me as odd and a bit gimmicky (I felt embarrassed being asked to stand to the right of the ring with my orchestra-right section  ), and while it would have been awkward to still break into song in the middle of a boxing match, it still felt strange how non-"musical" the entire end sequence became, and how rigidly it tried to convey simply a "live", in-person version of the movie version. Having said all of this, the crowd seemed to enjoy it, so perhaps it will still have a decent run with those hoping to see the movie come to life, with a few new songs thrown on…
Finally: did anyone else get "thrown" by how different Rocky's (beautiful and theatrical) singing voice was from his spoken? I know this is often the convention, but it particularly "took me out of it", for some reason…
My two cents -
rj
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