A Bronx Tale (play)

Last updated

A Bronx Tale is an autobiographical one-man show written and performed by Chazz Palminteri. It tells the coming-of-age story of Calogero Anello, a young New Yorker torn between the temptations of organized crime and the values of his hardworking father. It originally premiered in Los Angeles in 1989, before moving Off-Broadway. A film version involving Palminteri and Robert De Niro was released in 1993. In 2007, Palminteri performed his one-man show on Broadway and on tour.

Contents

A musical version, A Bronx Tale directed by Robert De Niro opened in 2016 at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway and played until December 2018. [1] [2]

Overview

A Bronx Tale tells the story of Calogero Anello, a young boy from a working class family who gets involved in the world of organized crime. Calogero's father is a bus driver who tries to instill working-class family values in his son. As Calogero gets older, the aura and mystique of the Mafia, and the charms of Sonny, the local mob boss who befriends Calogero (and ends up becoming a father figure to him), become difficult to resist. As Calogero comes of age, he must struggle with the choice of following his beloved father's values or submitting to the temptations of the life of organized crime.

Background and productions

Palminteri states that he began writing the play after being fired from a club when, as a doorman, he refused entry to super agent Swifty Lazar. [3] [4] The play is largely based on Palminteri's own childhood, specifically the shooting Calogero witnesses as a child, as well as the occupation and name of his father. [5]

A Bronx Tale premiered at Theatre West in Los Angeles, achieving great critical success. Palminteri relates that "After some polishing, the show opened to positive reviews and soon attracted Hollywood interest. 'Every director, every studio head wanted to make the movie,' Palminteri said. 'They offered, $250,000, $500,000.'" [4] Palminteri then appeared in the play Off-Broadway at Playhouse 91, from October 10, 1989, to December 24, 1989, directed by Mark X. Travis. [6] The play had a sold-out run and Palminteri received a 1989–1990 Special Award from the Outer Critics Circle. [7] [8] [9]

2007 Broadway

In 2007, Palminteri performed his one-man show on Broadway. The Broadway production began previews on October 4, 2007, and opened on October 25, 2007, at the Walter Kerr Theatre. The show closed on February 24, 2008, after 108 performances and nineteen previews. [8] It was directed by Jerry Zaks and Produced by Go Productions with Trent Othick being the lead producer, [10] original music by John Gromada, set design by Jim Noone, and lighting design by Paul Gallo. [10] It recouped its capitalization and was followed by a national tour. [11] [12] The play was nominated for the 2007–2008 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. [13]

Film adaptation

In 1990, at a performance of A Bronx Tale, Robert De Niro met with Palminteri in his dressing room after having seen the show. De Niro told Palminteri, "This is one of the greatest one-man shows I've ever seen, if not the greatest... This is a movie, this is an incredible movie." [14] After acquiring the rights to create the film, with De Niro claiming the deal was made solely with a gentlemen's agreement with Palminteri, the duo began crafting the screenplay. [14] Prior to partnering with De Niro, Palminteri rejected several offers for the film's rights, including some as high as $1 million, due to not being granted the roles of primary screenwriter and Sonny, the gangster Calogero meets. [14] De Niro met Palminteri's requirements on the condition that he be allowed to direct the film and play Lorenzo, Calogero's father, which Palminteri accepted. [14] The film of the same name was released in 1993.

Musical adaptation

After a ten-year development process, the original one man show was adapted into a new musical with a book by Chazz Palminteri, music by Alan Menken, and lyrics by Glenn Slater, and premiered at the Paper Mill Playhouse (Milburn, New Jersey) on February 4, 2016, before opening on Broadway December 1 later that year.

The musical is co-directed by Robert De Niro, who directed the original film, and Jerry Zaks, who directed the one man show on Broadway in 2007. The show also features choreography by Sergio Trujillo. Tommy Mottola serves as the production's leading producer.

The production includes sets by Beowulf Boritt, costumes by William Ivey Long, lighting by Howell Binkley, and sound by Gareth Owen. The cast features Bobby Conte Thornton as Calogero, Nick Cordero as Sonny, Hudson Loverro as Young Calogero with Athan Sporek as his alternate, Richard H. Blake as Lorenzo, Ariana DeBose as Jane, and Lucia Giannetta as Rosina. [15]

The musical began previews on Broadway on November 3, 2016, before officially opening on December 1, 2016, at the Longacre Theatre and closed on August 5, 2018, after 700 performances. [16] [17] [18]

Sources

Related Research Articles

<i>A Bronx Tale</i> 1993 film directed by Robert De Niro

A Bronx Tale is a 1993 American coming-of-age crime drama film directed by and starring Robert De Niro in his directorial debut and produced by Jane Rosenthal, adapted from Chazz Palminteri's 1989 play of the same name. It tells the coming-of-age story of an Italian-American boy, Calogero, who, after encountering a local Mafia boss, is torn between the temptations of organized crime and the values of his honest, hardworking father, as well as racial tensions in his community. The Broadway production was converted to film with limited changes, and starred Palminteri and De Niro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chazz Palminteri</span> American actor (born 1952)

Calogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri is an American actor. He is best known for his film roles in A Bronx Tale (1993), based on his play of the same name, Bullets Over Broadway (1994) for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and The Usual Suspects (1995), as well as his recurring role as Shorty in Modern Family (2010–2019).

Lynn Ahrens is an American songwriter, and librettist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for the Broadway musical Ragtime. Together with Flaherty, she has written many musicals, including Lucky Stiff, My Favorite Year, Ragtime, Seussical, A Man of No Importance, Dessa Rose, The Glorious Ones, Rocky, Little Dancer and, recently on Broadway, Anastasia and Once on This Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hunter Foster</span> American actor

Hunter Foster is an American musical theatre actor, singer, librettist, playwright and director.

<i>Bullets Over Broadway</i> 1994 film by Woody Allen

Bullets Over Broadway is a 1994 American black comedy crime film directed by Woody Allen, written by Allen and Douglas McGrath, and starring an ensemble cast including John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri and Jennifer Tilly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephanie J. Block</span> American actress and singer (born 1972)

Stephanie Janette Block is an American actress and singer, best known for her work on the Broadway stage.

The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on Broadway and Off-Broadway. They are presented by the Outer Critics Circle (OCC), the official organization of New York theater writers for out-of-town newspapers, digital and national publications, and other media beyond Broadway. The awards were first presented during the 1949–50 theater season, celebrating their 70th anniversary in 2020. David Gordon, Editor-in-Chief at TheaterMania.com, currently serves as president.

Judy Kaye is an American singer and actress. She has appeared in stage musicals, plays, and operas. Kaye has been in long runs on Broadway in the musicals The Phantom of the Opera, Ragtime, Mamma Mia!, and Nice Work If You Can Get It.

Joseph Edward Barbara is an American television and soap opera actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Gromada</span>

John Gromada is a prolific, award-winning composer and sound designer. He is best known for his many scores for theatrical productions in New York on and off-Broadway and in regional theatres. Broadway plays he has scored include the 2014 production of The Elephant Man, starring Bradley Cooper, The Trip to Bountiful with Cicely Tyson, Gore Vidal's The Best Man, Seminar by Theresa Rebeck, Next Fall, Chazz Palminteri's A Bronx Tale, David Auburn's The Columnist and Proof, Lisa Kron's Well, Rabbit Hole, and A Few Good Men; revivals of Prelude to a Kiss, Summer and Smoke, Twelve Angry Men, Torch Song, and A Streetcar Named Desire. His score for the nine-hour production of Horton Foote's The Orphans' Home Cycle was featured at the Hartford Stage Company and Signature Theatre in New York. Gromada also designed the sound for the Broadway production of Bruce Norris' Tony award-winning play, Clybourne Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Fitzgerald (actor)</span> American actor and singer

Christopher Cantwell Fitzgerald is an American actor and singer. He is known for his role as Boq in the musical Wicked, Igor in the musical Young Frankenstein, and Ogie Anhorn in the musical Waitress. He earned Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, and Tony Award nominations for his performances in Waitress and Young Frankenstein and won the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for his performance in Waitress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norm Lewis</span> American actor, singer (born 1963)

Norm Lewis is an American actor and baritone singer. He has appeared on Broadway, in the West End, film, television, recordings and regional theatre. He’s also noted for his wide vocal range. Lewis was the second African-American actor after Robert Guillaume to perform in the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and the first one to do so in the Broadway production. In 2023, he reprised the role in the show's sequel, Love Never Dies, in London's West End.

<i>Xanadu</i> (musical) American musical comedy

Xanadu is a musical comedy with a book by Douglas Carter Beane and music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, based on the 1980 film of the same name, which was, in turn, inspired by the 1947 Rita Hayworth film Down to Earth. The title refers to Xanadu, the site of the Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan's summer palace.

Richard H. Blake is an American actor and singer best known for his work in musical theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casey Nicholaw</span> American theatre professional

Casey Nicholaw is an American theatre director, choreographer, and performer. He has been nominated for several Tony Awards for his work directing and choreographing The Drowsy Chaperone (2006), The Book of Mormon (2011), Aladdin (2014), Something Rotten! (2015), Mean Girls (2018), The Prom (2019), and Some Like It Hot (2023) and for choreographing Monty Python's Spamalot (2005), winning for his co-direction of The Book of Mormon with Trey Parker and his choreography of Some Like It Hot. He also was nominated for the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Direction and Choreography for The Drowsy Chaperone (2006) and Something Rotten! (2015) and for Outstanding Choreography for Spamalot (2005).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Kitt (musician)</span> American composer and musician

Thomas Robert Kitt is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and musician. For his score for the musical Next to Normal, he shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Brian Yorkey. He has also won two Tony Awards and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Next to Normal, as well as Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations for If/Then and SpongeBob SquarePants. He has been nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards, winning one, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Jagged Little Pill in 2021.

Thomas Kail is an American theatre and television director, known for directing the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musicals In the Heights and Hamilton, garnering the 2016 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for the latter. Kail was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 2018. He has also directed the television series Fosse/Verdon (2019), for which he was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards.

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill is a jukebox musical featuring several of Billie Holiday's most famous songs. The play was written by Lanie Robertson and recounts some events in the life of Holiday. It premiered in 1986 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and soon played Off-Broadway. The play opened on Broadway in 2014, and also played in London's West End in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Cordero</span> Canadian actor and singer (1978–2020)

Nicholas Eduardo Alberto Cordero was a Canadian actor and singer. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Cheech in the 2014 Broadway musical Bullets Over Broadway and was twice nominated for Drama Desk Awards. His career also included television and film roles.

<i>A Bronx Tale</i> (musical) Musical based on the play by the same name

A Bronx Tale is a musical based on the play by the same name with a book by Chazz Palminteri, music by Alan Menken, and lyrics by Glenn Slater. After a ten-year development process, the original one man show was adapted into a new musical and premiered at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey on February 4, 2016, before opening on Broadway December 1 later that year.

References

  1. ↑ Kort, Alician (2 Jan 2017). "Review: A Bronx Tale: A New Musical". Paste. Archived from the original on 21 Sep 2017. Retrieved 10 Jan 2024.
  2. ↑ "Tickets". abronxtalethemusicial.com. 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Broadway Names with Julie James," On Broadway, SiriusXM, 11 Oct 2012.
  4. 1 2 Winn, Steven. "Palminteri revisits 'A Bronx Tale'" San Francisco Chronicle , September 23, 2008.
  5. ↑ "Chazz Palminteri and the real-life inspiration for 'A Bronx Tale' are forever intertwined". bostonglobe.com. March 31, 2019.
  6. ↑ A Bronx Tale Lortel Archives, accessed January 26, 2016
  7. ↑ "1989–1990 Awards" Archived 2019-06-29 at the Wayback Machine Outer Critics Circle, accessed January 26, 2016
  8. 1 2 "Chazz Palminteri Broadway" Playbill vault.com, accessed January 26, 2016
  9. ↑ "Chazz Palmienteri In 'A Bronx Tale'" (Press release). North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie. Archived from the original on February 2, 2016. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  10. 1 2 Isherwood, Charles. "An Innocent Mentored by the Mob" New York Times, October 26, 2007
  11. ↑ Press Release talkinbroadway.com
  12. ↑ Gans, Andrew."Palminteri's A Bronx Tale to Launch National Tour in September" Playbill, June 10, 2008
  13. ↑ Gans, Andrew. "Nominees for Outer Critics Circle Awards Announced in April; Winners Revealed in May" Playbill, February 18, 2009
  14. 1 2 3 4 Vlastelica, Ryan (March 2, 2016). "Chazz Palminteri on A Bronx Tale, Keyser Söze, and Stallone's career advice". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  15. ↑ Gans, Andrew; Hetrick, Adam. "Nick Cordero Will Star in Broadway’s 'A Bronx Tale' Musical" Playbill, August 31, 2016
  16. ↑ Hetrick, Adam. " A Bronx Tale Musical Sets Sights on Broadway" Playbill, May 18, 2016
  17. ↑ Gans, Andrew, Hetrick, Adam. " 'A Bronx Tale' Musical Will Play Broadway's Longacre" Playbill, June 13, 2016
  18. ↑ McPhee, Ryan (June 27, 2018). "A Bronx Tale Sets Broadway Closing Date". Playbill. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.