‘Rocky’ musical set for German premiere

London: Sylvester Stallone has exchanged Hollywood for Hamburg to promote the first stage adaptation of his boxing movie, ‘Rocky’. The Hollywood star, whose 1976 movie won three Oscars and spawned five sequels, is the producer of ‘Rocky - Das Musical,’ along with the champion boxing brothers Vladimir and Vitali Klitschko, a news channel has reported. He appeared at a news conference with the show’s director, Alex Timbers, and its two lead actors, Drew Sarich - who plays Rocky - and Wietske van Tongeren (Adrian). Like the film, the show at Hamburg’s TUI Operettenhaus tells the rags-to-riches story of Rocky Balboa, a talented but unsuccessful amateur boxer, realising his potential and winning his romantic interest, Adrian Pennino. Speaking about the role he played in the development of the musical which has been almost three years in the pipeline, Stallone said: “All I provided was the story and then Tom Meehan wrote the book for the play.” “So I really truly believe that this thing here is going to be extraordinarily successful. I don’t know how it can fail because it’s about the people,” he said. The musical’s world premiere will be at the TUI Operettenhaus on Sunday. With a budget of 15 million dollars and Hollywood stalwarts comprising its creative team, the show has been hotly anticipated. Originally penned in English, it was translated for German theatre after being given the final go-ahead in November 2011. The musical features all the original film’s main characters, as well as song hits, such as ‘Gonna Fly Now’ and ‘Eye Of The Tiger.’ ANI