ROCKY Reviews- Page 8

[bobs3]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 5:37pm

When you consider that THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, MAMMA MIA, and WICKED all received mixed-negative reviews from the Times and are still running I think ROCKY will settle down for a nice long run at the Winter Garden. If 12-16 year old girls are begging their Moms to take them to see WICKED you can bet that 12-16 year old boys will begging their Dads to take them to see ROCKY.

[AndrewAndrew]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 5:42pm

@bobs3 agree; while not Jerusalem or Godot, Rocky is a visceral theatrical experience that will find an audience. The folks behind Bronx Bombers and Magic / Bird should consider recruiting Alex!

[BrerBear]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 6:32pm

I kinda doubt that any 12-16 year old boys who beg their parents to take them to see musical theater are going to demand Rocky. At that point, their cover is already blown.

Maybe I'm wrong and the previews have been filled with teenage boys. Skeptical.

[Jon_sense]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 6:58pm

I don't agree that the tenor of the ho-hum to negative reviews stems from the pre-opening hype. Seems to me, many become critics because they have a high opinion of their own opinion. Also, it's not as if Rocky has swept into town with gargantuan advance sales and acclaim. If anything, word has been that it's not been shaping up as a boffo audience pleaser which can do without critical hosannas.

My tweet on it is linked below. The long-form review is forthcoming. Here's the upshot:

Rocky has the '76 film's story, the song from III, & the soullessness of IV&V. As kinetic spectacle though, it's the season's main event.

The movie's strongest suit was Rocky's underdog status. As hard as he works and as well as he does, Andy Karl is a strapping hunk who doesn't read as someone whom everyone has written off. There's a parallel here between Rocky beating the odds to become a contender and Karl becoming a star. Like Rocky, he's still standing by the curtain call. But I wished I'd sensed the bruised soul that Stallone brought to the role.
rocky road to finale

[bobs3]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 7:00pm

Hey BrerBear -- YOU IGNORANT PIECE OF SH*T!!!!

Here's a piece of Spanish News for you -- not all teenage boys who like musical theater turn out to be Kurt Hummels or Luke Sissyf*gs.

I apologize if I offended any of the Kurts or Lukes out there but I had to put this POS in his place!

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 7:24pm

My son asks to go to the theater all the time, he loves. We saw Rocky together. What does his sexuality have to do with it?

[binau]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 7:30pm

Sadly there is a perception in my opinion that musicals are for girls and gays in my opinion. I wonder if the Rocky brand is masculine enough to overcome that. I don't know.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 7:35pm

Stories in the mainstream press that "regular guys" will want to see Rocky sort of build on that premise.

[evic]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 7:44pm

I don't think this is a show that theater parties are going to run to and they are important to a show's survival. I hope it runs for a while to make Andy Karl a star.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 7:59pm

Count me in with those who were rubbed the wrong way by BrerBear's joke. I'm sure he meant it innocently, but there are a million reasons a young man would respond to musical theatre other than "budding expression of homosexuality."

Saying that only gay teenage boys would want to see or do musicals, or that musicals are just FOR gay men, is reductionist, and probably more than a little offensive to gay AND straight men.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 8:11pm

There was a young boy at the performance I was at dressed in boxing attire and Andy Karl threw the kid his towel as he was walking down the aisle to the ring.

[BrerBear]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 8:14pm

I apologize to those who I apparently greatly offended with my comment, which was meant in jest. I would never suggest that all teenage boys who enjoy musical theater are gay, and I know some who are not. Nonetheless, I have a hard time believing that, as bob3 suggested, there is a large market of teenage boys "demanding" to be taken to musical theater that is going to keep this show afloat. Certainly not in the same numbers as teenage girls.

If you want to argue that such a demographic exists, feel free. Which is why I asked if teenage boys were prevalent at the Rocky previews.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 8:30pm

I think it's the opposite of what you're suggesting- a show like this is hoping to attract a new audience. People who might have said "Nah, I don't know if musicals are for me... but it's Rocky! How bad can Rocky be?"

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 8:34pm

I kinda doubt that any 12-16 year old boys who beg their parents to take them to see musical theater are going to demand Rocky. At that point, their cover is already blown.

Wow. Probably one of the most narrow minded things I have read on here.

[jbroadway4]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 8:49pm

I begged my mom to go see it and I'm in that age range. But I'm also a huge theatre fan, so....

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 9:17pm

"When you consider that THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, MAMMA MIA, and WICKED all received mixed-negative reviews from the Times and are still running I think ROCKY will settle down for a nice long run at the Winter Garden. If 12-16 year old girls are begging their Moms to take them to see WICKED you can bet that 12-16 year old boys will begging their Dads to take them to see ROCKY."

I think the difference between "Rocky" and the other musicals you mentioned was that they had much better music. I don't think I have read many posts where somebody said they were blown away by the music/lyrics in "Rocky". The only thing everyone seems to agree on in a positive way is that the fight scene is pretty terrific.

[BrerBear]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 9:28pm

"I think it's the opposite of what you're suggesting- a show like this is hoping to attract a new audience. People who might have said "Nah, I don't know if musicals are for me... but it's Rocky! How bad can Rocky be?""
I agree that they are hoping to attract a new audience, but I don't think it's teenage boys. More likely older men who are familiar with a nearly 40 year-old movie.

I respect that people passionate enough about theater to be posting on a Broadway board would have instilled a healthy appreciation for theater in their families. I don't see any evidence that the same is true of the general populace, though, and if the show is counting on teenage boys to prop it up I suspect that is a poor strategy.

Nonetheless, I'll shut my offensive mouth now until the verdict is in. If teenage boys demand to see the show in large numbers, as was suggested here, I'll happily eat crow and appreciate that the audience for theater has substantially widened.

[ARTc3]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 10:22pm

BrerBear, I'm gay and I wasn't offended by your comment. I'm no longer a teenager - far from it - but when I was growing up, I was one of the very few teenagers from my affluent suburban New Jersey neighborhood who was at all interested in attending the theater. I was "out" back then, which made me a rarity and often the focus of bullying.

A hundred years later, many of the other guys from my high school's theater club - all at the time closeted - have contacted me on Facebook. Guess what? They're all gay.

Perhaps, things are different now, and if so, I may be out of touch - although I have nephews and I don't thing so. I remember not being able to share my passion for show tunes and all things "theater" related as doing so only made the bullying worse.

I am sure that there are many young men interested in the theater who are not gay, nor will discover that they are gay as they become older. I am only saying that your "generalization" isn't so far fetched and I'm not quite sure why you were "attacked" for your comment.

Updated On: 3/14/14 at 10:22 PM

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 10:27pm

I begged my mom to go see it and I'm in that age range. But I'm also a huge theatre fan, so....

This statement is missing a central fact that would suggest Brer is right or wrong.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 11:02pm

None of the ads say it's a musical. They show no singing.

[FishermanBob]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 11:24pm

Without getting into any generalizations... while Rocky might be the perfect Broadway show for parents who consciously want to introduce their sons to theater, to think that most 12-16 year old boys will on their own, be begging their parents to go see Rocky is probably overstated. To the average 12-16 year old, Sylvester Stallone is some old guy and Rocky is something they might have heard about but is not in their wheelhouse of movies with huge special effects based on comic books. Most 12-16 year old boys if asked by their parents would they rather see Rocky or go to a Yankees game and get a bobblehead on a giveaway day, it wouldn't even be close.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 11:27pm

This whole thing is one of the sociocultural bugbears I have always pondered. As a Hispanic very-liberal-Catholic heterosexual, I am three-for-three outside the central demographic of musical theatre.

Why is this entire art form so connected with "gay white Jews" that there are numerous jokes and even a song or two dedicated to that entire idea? The recent "Jewish Legacy" documentary really cleared up the Jewish side of the equation, but at what point did theatre become "gay," or did gay become "theatre?" Before Broadway, before musical theatre, was there a connection between the stage and homosexuality, or homosexuality and patronage of the stage?

Someday, they're going to have to make a sequel documentary, "Broadway: A Gay Legacy" and suss this one out too.

[massofmen]

Posted: 3/14/14 at 11:51pm

as seth myers so beautifully put it on SNL weekend update a year ago:

MEYERS - "It was announced this week that a musical version of the movie Rocky will be coming to Broadway this year. So if you loved Rocky, and you love lavish Broadway musicals...who ARE you?"

[lite2shine]

Posted: 3/15/14 at 8:14am

The only show my son begged to take him was BOM. He may enjoy Rocky but I think he would enjoy Newises more because of the dancing. I think a regular teenager would be bored to death by the final fighting scene. Yes I've seen the show.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 3/15/14 at 10:02am

"The only show my son begged to take him was BOM. He may enjoy Rocky but I think he would enjoy Newises more because of the dancing. I think a regular teenager would be bored to death by the final fighting scene. Yes I've seen the show."

I agree with you, boxing is a dying sport and I don't think teenage boys care one itoa about it. They make like martial arts and IMO "Rocky" fight scene would probably bore them in comparison to martial arts. When I saw "Newsies", there were a couple of teenage boys next to us and they were really into the dancing.