Critics On Rocky - The Musical

Critics are united in their praise for the Eye Of The Tiger - Climax of the musical version of Rocky which opened Thursday night on Broadway. They are less excited about the first three quarters of the show. Here are some excerpts from the reviews:
New York Daily News: The Broadway musical “Rocky” is big-hearted, quick-fisted and predictable, but its last 15 minutes pack the punch of a heavyweight champ…It’s a real knockout moment. But to “go the distance,” to quote the fictional Balboa, a musical needs more than a stunning climax.
Variety: Whatever your expectations going into “Rocky,” you come out rocking the technology.  No mystery about where the $16.5 million capital investment went in this musical iteration of the 1976 movie that made an iconic hero of Rocky Balboa.
New York Post: Problem is, that finale is preceded by an hour and a half of less thrilling moments.
New York Times: The official curtain time for “Rocky,” the new musical at the Winter Garden Theater, is 8 on most nights. But at the risk of promoting tardiness among theatergoers, 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. And the audience wakes out of a couch potato stupor — the kind you experience when you have the television tuned to an infomercial station — to the startling tingle of adrenaline in its blood.
Wall Street Journal: A new drinking game comes to Broadway thanks to the musical "Rocky." Here are the rules: Take a shot every time Rocky says "Yo, Adrian." If you get to intermission without passing out, you win.