Rocky the musical - Page 2

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/11/14 at 6:52am

JayG, your evaluation that Rocky is just too heterosexual to really feel at home in the Broadway idiom reminds me of the evaluation of "Baby" in "Not Since Carrie," as well as the critiques of "First Date." A musical doesn't need explicitly to appeal to homosexuals and cultural Jews, who have long been the cultural curators of musical theatre, but it helps if they don't feel alienated from the material, which Mandelbaum suggests happens with "Baby" and which may have happened here.

I think it's not perfect, but it's a fascinating experiment in writing a realistic "average Joe" character and making him sing in his own idiom. Rocky is not mentally handicapped or even a Forrest Gump. He's just a working-class schmuck with not much education who knows he's not that smart. Contrast him with the similar characters in "The Full Monty," who owe more to musical theatre and to Billy Joel or Bruce Springsteen's working-class poetics than they do to the reality of their situations.

[JRybka]

Posted: 7/11/14 at 7:04am

About touring... If they could tour Starlight Express... I am sure they could do it.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/11/14 at 12:18pm

You know what I mean! You know he wasn't going to lose.

How anyone could think "My Nose Ain't Broken" is a good song... that also gets a reprise is beyond me.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 7/11/14 at 12:46pm

But he didn't win so erm he lost

[haterobics]

Posted: 7/11/14 at 1:56pm

Yeah, spoiler alert, Rocky loses the fight, but goes the distance.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/12/14 at 12:34pm

Eh, well obviously I checked out at that point. I was pretty damn bored in the last 20mins. Watching someone construct the set and move the audience while listening to pointless sports commentating. I was pretty bored. So my bad.

They make it seem like the set comes out into the audience and it's effortless and stuff, but it's not. There's not really any theater magic. It's just on some wheels.

[sondheimfan2]

Posted: 7/12/14 at 12:59pm

"The show sucks. Find it interesting how so many people have loved it. The score is tuneless, the book is plodding, and the set is hideous. Just because the set is gigantic and expensive does not make it good. Andy Karl is the only bright spot in the show. The last 20 minutes are the only time I enjoyed the show, and it wasn't even that well written of a scene. The show is absolutely awful. The show does not do the great movie justice."

I absolutely agree. One of the worst shows I have ever experienced. And I didn't even enjoy the last 20 minutes. I said it before and I'll say it again: the show belongs at Universal Studios in Florida, not on Broadway.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 7/12/14 at 1:08pm

"They make it seem like the set comes out into the audience and it's effortless and stuff, but it's not. There's not really any theater magic. It's just on some wheels."

Thank you. The idea that uprooting and moving a chunk of the audience and dragging that arena out atop the Winter Garden orchestra constitutes inventiveness is startling by any standards, but in 2014, bizarre.

[dented146]

Posted: 7/12/14 at 1:14pm

I felt the show was very entertaining and the love story quite charming. I liked the score much more than many people on this board who seem to hate it. Again, I thought many of the songs were quite nice and fit the story.

I believe the musical is underrated.

[luvcaroline]

Posted: 7/12/14 at 1:28pm

Count me as one who enjoyed it a lot. Andy Karl was so engaging in the role and made Rocky one of the most likable characters I've seen in a show in awhile.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/12/14 at 3:26pm

Just curious: does anyone else think this could have been good as a sung-through musical?

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/13/14 at 1:30am

My biggest problem was the love story. They never explain/reason why the two lovebirds are into each other. She's antisocial, he's dumb. I don't see why they'd be into each other? I'll give you that the performances are winning. Nothing on the actors. And the direction is spectacular. It's the book/music that are really to blame.