Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, a Tony Award-winning songwriting team (Ragtime), along with the book writer Thomas Meehan are deep into a stage musical adaptation of the boxing/romantic drama Rocky, the winner of the 1976 Academy Award for best picture.

“At first I thought, all the world needs is a ‘Rocky’ musical,” Mr. Meehan said. “But then I looked at the film. I thought it had beautiful construction and such high emotion, and it was a natural musical: There is a David and Goliath story, a Cinderella story, a love story between two outcasts. It’s less about boxing than about finding self-respect and finding your soul mate.”

The creators and producers, which include Rocky star and screenwriter Sylvester Stallone, held a private reading of the work in New York in April, according to Mr. Meehan and a member of the producing team, Barbara Darwall. They described the reading as creatively successful and said work was continuing toward the goal of mounting the musical in Germany in the fall of 2012 — and then, they hope, bringing Rocky to Broadway in the spring of 2013.