Info on Flaherty/Ahrens' "Rocky" starts to seep out

The world premiere will be performed in German (but will subsequently travel the globe in English).

Many of the franchise's famous songs will be included such as Eye of the Tiger, Gonna Fly Now, and (horrors!) Take You Back, which was Sly's doo-wop number.



Link

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Agreed - this sounds unbearably painful. Who'd have thought Lynn and Steve would go so vulgar?

I'm truly disappointed by this. I am a huge fan of Flaherty/Ahrens.

I was willing to go with their decision to musicalize this property, despite reservations.

But I figured that if anyone could turn the movie into a musical that might work it would be them. But to read that those songs from the movie are included, well my heart sank.

Nothing against those songs, and perhaps with another creative team they might actually work.

But Flaherty/Ahrens; scores create are so intricately woven into the fabric of their shows that I fear these movie songs will:
a) clash with the tone of their score and
b) stop the show cold

Still curious, and still going to check it out but my expectations are officially lowered.

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I'm kind of shocked, actually.

That was jaw-droppingly bad.

Holy. Crap.

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Holy cow... Bring back WONDERLAND already!!!!!!

"My nose ain't broken, it still looks nice
Don't need no stiches, don't need no ice"

It reminds me of the musical spoofs that Mel Brooks or Carol Burnett used to do.

Or that Elephant Man musical in The Tall Guy.

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Above I wrote "I'm kind of shocked, actually."

Well, I've seen the video and I officially retract the "kind of".

And, no, the boxing does not look real (not even to me and I'm no fan of the sport).

I guess I knew from history that even the best writers can talk themselves into the worst projects, but damn!

I just realized Alex Timbers is directing this (but not writing the book...) Is he aware it's not meant to be a spoof?

What's the Stroman project?

This may make Taymor's Spiderman look like My Fair Lady

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Wow, I actually think this has a ton of potential, and I'm not a big Ahrens/Flaherty fan.

Some people just like to bitch and moan no matter what. And it's always the same people. It's kinda sad.

I don't think it's a bad idea to attempt a musical adaptation of Rocky. I think THIS approach that we see here is terrible. The minute they say they want to add in the cheesy, dated soundtrack songs from the "franchise," they lose me instantly. That shows the desperation in the name recognition. This is another "ice show" adaptation, as I said before. "Let's try to do Rocky on stage by throwing a few songs into it and making it as much like the movies as possible." Instant fail.

At the heart of Rocky (yes, it has one) is a wonderful, small story between Rocky and Adrian, and Rocky and his trainer. That's where the drama and "magic" to the piece can be found. But adding a bunch of generic chorus boys in sweats singing a completely square, "Up With People" arrangement of "Eye of the Tiger" immediately throws the whole thing into parody.

It's not a bad idea to adapt Rocky, although it's a challenging one. But it's a horrible idea to adapt it this way and hope for anything other than laughs.

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