'Rocky' The Musical Coming to Broadway
by Shannon Keirnan
Rocky can knock a man down… but can he sing and dance?
Sylvester Stallone, who starred in the “Rocky” franchise, along with Stage Entertainment USA, will be producing an on-stage musical version of the drama to bring to New York.
The show has already done well in Hamburg, Germany, where it premiered last fall, but will Americans love it too?
The production is based on the 1976 Oscar-winning film written by Stallone, and boasts a score by Ragtime composers Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, and a story by Thomas Meehan (The Producers, Hairspray). Alex Timbers will direct.
The musical stays faithful to the film, which follows boxer Rocky Balboa through love and battles. The musical focuses more heavily on the relationship between Balboa and girlfriend Adrian.
"At the end of the day, Rocky is a love story, and he could never have reached the final bell without Adrian,” Stallone said in a video produced by Stage Entertainment. “To see this story coming to life on a musical stage makes me proud. And it would make Rocky proud."
"The creative team behind 'Rocky' includes some of Broadway’s most sought-after and superlative artists who together have crafted a musical that is epic and yet intimate, romantic yet muscular, much like the Academy Award-winning Best Picture that took the world by storm over thirty years ago,” adds Stage Entertainment USA Producer Bill Taylor, noting he is excited to be involved in the project.
What do you think? Will you see the stage version when it hits Broadway next year?