The New York Times - Not Recommended
"......I feel obliged to point out that the show doesn't really get started until 10:10 or thereabouts. That's when a production that has seemed to be down for the count since the opening bars of its overture suddenly acquires a pulse ¦ The look of the show, with sets by Christopher Barreca and costumes by David Zinn, is so gray and smudgy that it makes you think (incorrectly) that the movie was shot in black and white. The songs, like the characters, mutter solemnly and repetitively, as if they, too, were mired in an existential rut ¦ Every tool at the disposal of the creative team (and probably much of the show's budget) is brought into play now for an all-out, multimedia assault on the senses that forces much of the audience to its feet. And I won't say more, because why should I spoil the one real pleasure this show provides?"
NY Daily News - Recommended
"...The Broadway musical Rocky is big-hearted, quick-fisted and predictable, but its last 15 minutes pack the punch of a heavyweight champ ¦ But to go the distance, to quote the fictional Balboa, a musical needs more than a stunning climax. Impressive performances and eloquent design work enrich this mid-1970s South Philadelphia story, but the by-the-numbers script and score alternately fight it ¦ Songs are efficient, not memorable ¦ That said, the cast is terrific, especially the two leads."
Associated Press - Somewhat Recommended
"... ¦[a] puzzling show ¦ that seems to forget it's supposed to be a musical midway through Act II ¦ features a score by "Ragtime" veterans Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens that's intriguing ¦ but fails to really land a knockout punch ¦ Andy Karl, a tall bite of cheese steak, plays the over-the-hill boxer like he's doing a karaoke of Stallone, complete with ¦ a certain mental slowness. "Youse" is actually in the script. Margo Seibert plays Adrian as the same mousey love interest from the film, but watching her bloom and stand up for herself is a joy and you long to hear her sing more... "Rocky" is trying to be immersive. The cost is its soul ¦ The final fight a spectacular piece of theater, to be sure is so lifelike that it becomes surreal."
Hollywood Reporter - Recommended
"...While the songs ¦ come and go without leaving much of an impression, the stage magic that director Alex Timbers and set designer Christopher Barreca work with the finale fight is so visceral and exhilarating that it sends the audience out on a high. Of course, having an indestructible story with underdog characters worth rooting for doesn't hurt either ¦ while the book, co-written by Stallone with Broadway veteran Thomas Meehan, is a serviceable Xerox of the movie, the show is a mismatch of material and musical team. There's little evidence of any real connection to the story in the songs ¦ aside from the central couple, none of the other characters comes close to recapturing the colorful personality they had onscreen ¦ The impressive fluidity, detail and imagination of the stagecraft to a large extent compensate for the fact that as a musical, the show rarely sings ¦ if marketed successfully, Rocky could become for boys and their dads what Wicked is to the girl contingent."
Vulture - Not Recommended
"......a garishly colorful bloated mess of an unmusical musical called Rocky ¦ This was a job, if ever there was one, for Frank Wildhorn ¦ the songs don't lift: They barely even move. Instead, the set does. Indeed, the physical production is almost too expressive of Rocky's real nature... To judge from the clichΓ©s passing for costumes, Creed and his synchronized-sass entourage, dressed largely in Pimp Purple, have arrived in Philadelphia from a Saturday Night Live sketch about Soul Train. And then there's the famous boxing ring... It is admittedly, astonishing stagecraft, but also astonishing vulgarity. (Nor can you really understand what's going on.) It's bad enough that this Las Vegasized championship fight sequence, complete with anachronistic-for-1975 computer graphics, underlines what was already trashy in the earlier material, especially the portrayal of all the women (except for Adrian) as gum-snapping, vowel-honking floozies. But it also undermines whatever was good. It turns out that the love story was bait for the spectacle instead of the other way around..."
Variety - Recommended
"...Despite that razzle-dazzle opening, the first act is the soft one ¦ while a succession of ballads could put you to sleep, [Flaherty and Ahrens] do their job of winning hearts for Rocky and Adrian ¦ [Karl's] sensitive perf reveals the tough guy's tender core. And with Seibert bringing her sweet voice and guileless manner to Adrian, these two misfits are a perfect match ¦ the real stunner are the video projections by Dan Scully and Pablo N. Molina ¦ You'd think that nothing could top that visual until Hoggett sends out a dozen anonymous runners in grey sweatsuits to pound those streets alongside our hero. It's a breathtaking sequence ¦ The fight itself is a brilliant piece of staging ¦"
USA Today - Recommended
"...This musical adaptation of the original 1976 film is actually at its most affecting when things quiet down a little ¦ Adrian is played by Margo Seibert, a Broadway newcomer with a delicately compelling presence and a throbbing, textured singing voice that lets us hear the character coming out of her shell with Rocky's gentle encouragement. Karl's performance is similarly adroit and appealing ¦ under Alex Timbers' sensitive direction, Karl keeps the swagger to a minimum ¦ numbers mix predictable sentiments with overheated rock accents ¦ By [the finale], you may feel a little punch-drunk yourself. Just don't say you weren't warned."
New York Post - Recommended
"...Something electric happens at the end of Rocky ¦ Director Alex Timbers earns his keep right there. If you could win a Tony based on just 20 minutes, Rocky would be a shoo-in. Problem is, that finale is preceded by an hour and a half of less thrilling moments ¦ Too bad using ["Eye of the Tiger"] and Gonna Fly Now (a k a Bill Conti's original theme) only underline how Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens' score lacks energy, not to mention soul ¦ Fortunately, they've written some sweet ballads ¦ Quibbles, quibbles: The epic brawl wipes them all out, and resets the audience's memory so we leave on a Himalayan high. Rocky does win, after all."
Entertainment Weekly - Recommended
"...The musical version of Rocky is a technical knockout ¦ The best lines are lifted directly from Stallone's screenplay ¦ The real trouble is that, unlike ''Eye of the Tiger'' or the snatches of Bill Conti's triumphal theme, Stephen Flaherty's bland new songs merely shadowbox at melody and never land the pop-rock punch they often seem to be seeking. Karl makes the most of his power ballad ''Fight From the Heart,'' and his duet with Seibert ''Happiness'' is pleasant enough despite her rather thin voice. But too many of Flaherty's songs play like missed opportunities ¦ with clunky rhymes such as shoddy/body ¦ Even so, Rocky delivers edge-of-your-seat thrills..."
Newsday - Recommended
"...For a show that ends with the most impressive 20-minute boxing match ever seen in a Broadway musical, "Rocky" lacks conflict... directed with more conscientiousness than flair by Alex Timbers, one of the theater's most inventive forces. But there is a sweet center here: Karl, who imbues the Cinderella-guy story with enormous reserves of macho sensitivity... Margo Seibert, as Rocky's adored Adrian, has a lush, belting voice, but the show turns her from reluctant mouse to beautiful companion too easily... Then there is the generic soft-pop ballads and inspirational-power songs..."
amNY - Somewhat Recommended
"...How can you not burst into laughter when Rocky optimistically sings about how, despite all his troubles, "my nose ain't broken"? Seriously, that's the lyric ¦ the story is overwhelmed by towering walls, shifting platforms, multimedia screens and heavy lighting. The flow is also disrupted by all the new ballads, which ¦ end up being poorly integrated, musically weak and unintentionally ridiculous. Rocky, being an inarticulate individual, was not meant to burst into song. Hokey one-liners are also loaded into the script. The highlight of the musical is undoubtedly the championship match between Rocky and Apollo Creed ¦ Both the stagecraft and the fight choreography of this finale are stunning ¦ While Andy Karl deserves credit for enduring so much physically as Rocky, he comes off as too clean cut to be credible in the role. As Adrian, Margo Seibert is stymied by her character being so undeveloped and makes little impression. In effect, "Rocky" is the new "Spider-Man," a similarly flashy and misconceived spectacle-musical..."
Wall Street Journal - Highly Recommended
"......the stage version, directed with immense panache and soaring physicality by Alex Timbers, is very nearly as good [as the film], an unpretentious slice of honest entertainment whose rock-'em-sock-'em finale will set the snobbiest of theatergoers to cheering in spite of themselves... the faithfulness of the adaptation is also the source of its strength: Like the film, it gives you lots of what you want. It helps that the rock-flavored songs, which in musicals of this sort typically prove to be an incapacitating impediment, are generally quite good ¦ Mr. Timbers's staging and Christopher Barreca's scenic design are the stuff Tony nominations are made of ¦ So yes, "Rocky" is a straight-down-the-center commodity musical but a damned fine one, maybe the best I've ever seen. A knockdown hit, in fact."
NorthJersey - Somewhat Recommended
"......starts out promisingly ¦ There's a nice pace and feeling to all of this, but the rhythm soon evaporates, and the rest of the tale is related in flat, uninspired scenes that seem chiefly concerned with touching all the film's bases ¦ Karl lacks the distinctive personality that might have grasped and held our sympathy through the thick and thin of the story. You also get the feeling that director Timbers, working with a score that's no more than adequate, decided, at some point, to focus his energy on the show's physical possibilities... there's little sense of the actual drama of a long, close boxing match ¦"
NBC New York - Recommended
"...Preceding the high-voltage conclusion a round-by-round battle between the idealistic Italian Stallion and world champ Apollo Creed that makes use of the theater space in a quite novel way is an otherwise-workaday musical buoyed by enough built-in goodwill to lift it up the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and beyond. Rocky owes its success to three individuals. Foremost is star Andy Karl ¦ Director Alex Timbers ¦ and choreographer Steven Hoggett (Once ) have created fight scenes that are athletic and showy ¦ The music and lyrics by longtime collaborators Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens are serviceable, if humdrum ¦ For whatever its flaws, Rocky the musical wins with a knockout final scene that is, guaranteed, unlike anything you've seen in the theater."
Time Out New York - Highly Recommended
"...Give them a boffo ending and they'll forgive everything that came before... The score is uneven and some characters sketchy, but the piece has tremendous heart and narrative drive. In the end, Timbers achieves a splendid balance of epic sweep and gritty intimacy: storytelling with emotional punch and visceral thrills... Timbers and his team of visual wizards... prove, amazingly, that music doesn't have to be the most important element in a musical... Rocky is total theater and a total rush; it goes the distance."
The Wrap - Not Recommended
"...It's never a good sign in a stage musical when the most rousing numbers are not written by the credited songwriters ¦ Stallone and Meehan are faithful to that [movie] script, and on stage the dialogue plays even weaker than on screen. The corny jokes and meet-cute lines don't land or define character; they just sit there surrounded by dead air. Flaherty and Ahrens have merely punctuated that lame dialogue with their songs or other people's songs ¦ The show's Rocky is a bright spot in the production [Andy Karl] ¦ Rocky comes to life briefly at the end ¦ after two lackluster hours, Rocky finally delivers suspense, excitement, drama!"
Financial Times - Somewhat Recommended
"......an unexpectedly intimate affair " a well-acted, occasionally dull and sometimes touching story of two wounded souls ¦ this is not Flaherty and Ahrens' finest work ¦"
Time Magazine - Recommended
"......earns a lot of goodwill the easy way by reproducing famous scenes from the 1976 Sylvester Stallone film on which it is based. But the show does more difficult things well, too. It ¦ turns an unlikely film property into a Broadway musical with both spectacle and heart. The show is a crassly commercial exercise, aimed squarely at the tourist crowd and not the New York critics who will most likely make fun of it. But Rocky the musical is no loser. It lands ¦ Tom Meehan's script follows the movie faithfully a little too faithfully in the efficient if somewhat bland first act (which has been trimmed since the early preview I saw). Still, I was impressed with how carefully director Alex Timbers builds the relationship between Rocky and his mousy girlfriend Adrian ¦ The cast is almost perfect ¦ after two hearings, [the score] has started to grow on me. The power ballads are a little lacking, and the lyrics often clunky ¦ Rocky was always an unorthodox fighter but in his first Broadway bout, he takes the punishment and gets the job done."
New Jersey Newsroom - Recommended
"...Not a great musical but a highly enjoyable show anyway ¦ Rocky packs a sincere story, a winning leading man in Andy Karl and an awesome production design that certainly delivers a technical knockout ¦ The show's final 20 minutes, when Rocky dukes it out with Apollo Creed, is thrillingly theatrical. The score for this dramatic musical by composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens is not up to the team's Ragtime greatness, but it appropriately gets into a mid- 70s pop groove ¦ Karl's terrific performance as the dogged hero will have viewers rooting for him all the way ¦ Director Alex Timbers, who puts all of these elements together so seamlessly, provides a memorable entertainment at the Winter Garden."
Talkin Broadway - Somewhat Recommended
"...So electrifying is Rocky in its stagecraft that it would a pleasure to be able to report that its writing matched the caliber of its presentation. Alas, this is not the case. Though Stallone has collaborated on the book with Thomas Meehan and the score is by the talented team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, this is a musical that never sounds as smart as it looks ¦ in shoving aside dialogue and character for song, dance, and those kinetic thrills, they've robbed the story of the heart that was its most critical fuel ¦ Ahrens and Flaherty have not discovered what they should sing about ¦ [Karl] displays an incredible fortitude throughout the show, but it's not enough ¦ despite Timbers's heroic efforts at convincing us otherwise, the organic sound of this place and these people is being stifled, rather than aired, by ham-fistedly forcing it into a form it does not naturally want to occupy."
Cititour.com - Recommended
"......nothing compares " and may never will " to the dazzling final 20 minutes of the new musical Rocky ... This remarkable achievement, better seen in person than described, brings some much-needed adrenaline to this otherwise faithful and slightly pedestrian adaptation ¦ For most of the previous two hours, there's a fair amount of heart, but surprisingly little heat ¦ Karl gives the title role everything he's got, vocally and physically, and steps out of Stallone's shadow to make this hallowed part completely his own ¦ Perhaps if there was a little more development of the supporting characters ¦ they've penned some truly lovely numbers, including Adrian's plaintive Raining and the couple's sweet-natured duet Happiness. Yet everything they've written is trumped by the inclusion of the original film's ultra-memorable theme Gonna Fly Now and the pop megahit Eye of the Tiger ... What you will be singing are the praises of Timbers and his various collaborators ¦ Their work, along with Karl and Siebert's, ultimately make Rocky a ticket worth fighting for."
TheaterMania - Recommended
"...Karl captures the essence of Rocky with simple charm and affable dignity. You want him to win. Archie is perfect as Creed ¦ Ahrens & Flaherty, the undeniably talented composers behind Ragtime, unfortunately phone it in for Rocky ¦ For all its impressive wizardry, the set of Rocky makes for a remarkably cold experience. The action feels distant and the lighting is dim. This all changes in the final scene ¦ As if by magic, director Alex Timbers has transformed a Broadway show into a premiere sporting event, with all the accompanying adrenaline and fervor ¦ his rigorous commitment to sincerity pays off hugely ¦ Rocky is like every great American sports film you've ever watched, but played out live in front of you. You'll cheer and wince along with the rest of the crowd as you submit to the artistry of the production and the heart of the story."
NewYorkTheater.me - Recommended
"...Rocky is competent. Nearly everything about it works. The direction by Alex Timbers is smooth and professional, if not as innovative as some of his previous work. The songs by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty have vitality if not originality nor especially memorable melodies ¦ The performers some two dozen strong do a fine job, not a single wrong note (literally or figuratively) among them. Above all, the eye-catching, detailed design and complicated stagecraft provide a uniquely theatrical form of entertainment, without obviously undermining or overwhelming the story ¦ It's fun. And fun, if you can afford Broadway prices, can be enough."
