Rocky Previews — Page 22

Question for anyone seeing a preview... Has the sound improved? When I saw it (6 preview) the sound was dreadful and often unclear. I know they were aware of this issue and were working hard on correcting the problem. Has there been any noticeable improvement?

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I'm seeing this on Saturday and am very curious. I hope Terence Archie (Apollo) is back in the show by then.

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She was lucky and was at the right place at the right time. I think it depends on how helpful the Rep you get wants to be.

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My God, what a stupid musical that was.

The first act, which clocked in at about an hour and 45 minutes, in which nothing whatsoever happened. My husband had the foresight to leave at intermission, I stayed for the second act, which is another hour of my life I'll never get back.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Just got back from the show and all I can say is...WOW!!!
The show did start of a little rough, but once it got started, which I will say was after Adrian's first song it moves full speed ahead!!
The sets were just awe inspiring. The transition from the south side Philly to the office was simple yet so effective. The ring in the end was just SOOO EFFECTIVE!! Andy is amazing, and Margo's transformation as Adrian was just as impressive.
I honestly have to say that Rocky did right everything Spiderman did wrong. Especially when it comes to the montages, they were just fantastic.

My only qualms were Adrian's first song, Raining, which was just too slow...it felt like it went on forever.
And Apollo's song, Patriotic, which begged to be a big production number and fell flat and felt too constrained.

Updated On: 2/28/14 at 11:34 PM

Saw the show Wednesday night and it ran smoothly and I was very impressed. I liked the score a lot! Margo had the best songs IMO with Raining (beautiful melody/chord structure) and I'm Done (she was so passionate and completely blew me away). I liked the other songs too, especially the Act I closer. The set is massive and the pieces flowed seamlessly! The crew should be given a hand. Loved the ring and the final 20 minutes were thrilling! Andy was amazing and perfectly embodied the Rocky character, making him very likable. the ensemble was great too and all in all it was a very special night.

I've been to the show twice now and have to say that I really enjoyed it both times (once from Golden Circle, once from extreme side orchestra). I think that Andy embodies the role of Rocky perfectly; he doesn't mimic Stallone's Rocky, but makes the character his own. Both times I went the audience was really excited and it was easy to pick out people who were clearly big fans of the movie. They were out of their minds that they were finally seeing "Rocky" in person and cheered everything. For example, the guys sitting next to me were all about just yelling "Rocky!" any time he did some sort of workout..or cracked an egg. In a different situation a rowdy audience might've been irritating, but here it just built the atmosphere even more. As for Margo Seibert...she's just refreshing. It's so nice to hear a different voice on stage and I thoroughly enjoyed both "Raining" and "I'm Done." I hope we hear a lot about her this season because she absolutely deserves it.

Meehan and Stallone did a great job of expanding on the characters we saw in the movie because they seem more relatable and the love story makes more sense. While still painfully shy, Margo's Adrian is much more accessible to the audience and she gives us more of a sense of why she is so closed off. The songs also do a great job of giving the audience some backstory and capturing feelings that I felt may have been lacking in the movie. As for the set design and staging, there's not much I can say that hasn't already been mentioned. It's the real deal. The staging of "Eye of the Tiger" is incredible and the use of screens and projections just elevates the production. All of the iconic moments from the movie are incorporated and even if you haven't seen the movie they will still resonate with you. I'm definitely going to go back, possibly (probably) more than once.

Updated On: 2/28/14 at 05:09 PM

I won the lottery last night and got to see the preview with my friend. I honestly cannot explain how much I loved this show, but I will try. I was nervous there would be technical problems, and after seeing the show I can see how there could be, but the show ran very smoothly.
Overall the show is in good shape. I'm sure they will tighten up some of the jokes and dialogue, but there wasn't a moment where I felt my mind wandering from the action onstage. Andy really nailed the role. As people have said, he's not a cookie-cutter of Stallone's Rocky, but still true to that character. As for Margo, I thought she was phenomenal. I agree during the first act I didn't know how I felt, but during the second I fell in love, and I think that was purposeful due to her character growth.
Technically and set wise, I was shocked. I loved seeing how detailed and huge the sets were instead of being skimpy and relying on projections. Most impressive was the way they moved. We were sitting front row, and seeing the fluidity of the sets from that angle was really cool. I personally thought it very exciting to be in the Golden Circle.And even though I'm not a huge fan of sports or the movie, seeing the story portrayed live was epic. I really recommend this show.

Saw the Saturday matinee. Yeah, the score is not great, but the show really grabbed me. Karl is terrific. It was an exhilarating, theatrical experience.

I’ll start off by saying, to this day, I have never seen any of the Rocky movies. I saw the matinee yesterday and have to agree with most opinions I have read on this thread. I was in row Q center orchestra on the aisle. The seat was excellent.

As much as I admire and enjoy the previous works of Ahrens and Flaherty, I feel Rocky was just not the right project for them. The score was actually my biggest disappointment of the afternoon. A story and setting as gritty as Rocky, needs a score with edge, which it did not have. I kept thinking, what would Lin Manuel Miranda have done with this piece. I don’t know if this particular story was calling out to be musicalized to begin with.

The only number that verged on choreography (in terms of dancing) was when the various ensemble members were dressed in hoodies at the beginning of Act 2 as Rocky prepares for the fight. The show definitely could have used more of that.

Although clocking in at a little over an hour, the first act was dull. The 2nd act (even prior to the boxing match) was a lot better (and tighter).

All that being said, I thought the performances of Andy Karl, Margo Seibert and Terence Archie were all wonderful. Obviously Terence is ahead of the game in his characterization, as he played Apollo Creed in Germany.

I really liked the set design, and I’m happy to report that the show didn’t have to be stopped for any technical glitches. The transition getting the audience to the stage for the boxing match went quite smoothly. It was hard not getting all caught up in the action when the actual boxing match took place. Wow!! Is that enough to get me back to see this show? Unfortunately not. Once was enough.

I have to say, the audience yesterday had to be one of the better behaved that I’ve experienced in my last few shows on Broadway. During act 1, I heard a man sitting in the left orchestra section, in a thick Jersey accent say out loud, “Enough with that cell phone. Turn it off!” Good for him!!

Although I didn’t particularly care for Rocky, I’m still glad I saw it, just for the fact that I hadn’t seen The Winter Garden Theatre in it’s regular theatre state since I saw the original production of 42nd Street in 1981. I hadn’t been in that theatre since I last saw Cats in 1992. What a gorgeous theatre.

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I went back again tonight. After seeing it from the center mezz before, I now got to sit in the 4th row of the orchestra thanks to TDF. The seat was great up until the fight, when I had to stand, missing out on a lot of the fight choreography. I'm glad I had the experience up close on a repeat viewing, but I'm wouldn't have been happy if this was my first time going.

Other than cutting Philly Pie there haven't been very many noticeable changes. A few line tweaks here or there, but no new scenes, added songs, cut characters etc. I'm glad they cut Philly Pie because it does help us move the action along considerably, but the downside is that we are stuck with quite a few ballads. Philly Pie may not have been a great song, but it did bring a welcome change in tempo to the proceedings.

I found the melodies easier to hum on a second listen (duh!) and I appreciated the performances even more. Margo, Andy and Terence are just terrific. Act two is much stronger than act one, but I was much less wowed by the final fight due to my seat location.

I'm not completely converted to loving it because the score just isn't strong enough, but I think it's sufficiently entertaining and crowd-pleasing to have a healthy run.

Tons of industry people there tonight too.

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"Joop van der Ende from Holland will pour lots of money into this to keep it going if it gets awful reviews."

Why do you think that?

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