Based on the critically acclaimed play that inspired the now classic film, this streetwise musical will take you to the stoops of the Bronx in the 1960s- where a young man is caught between the father he loves and the mob boss he'd love to be.
A Bronx Tale is directed by two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro and four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, written by Academy Award nominee Chazz Palminteri, with songs by eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken and three-time Tony Award nominee Glenn Slater, choreography by Tony nominee Sergio Trujillo, and produced by music mogul Tommy Mottola, The Dodgers (Jersey Boys, Matilda) and Tribeca Productions.
Cordero is good and sleazy enough so that we never miss the original too much. He lacks Palminteri's heavy elegance, but his is an understated performance that gives the musical a solid foundation. Also very fine is the delectable Ariana Debose, who plays the love interest, and a gifted child actor named Hudson Loverro. The huge obstacle to overcome in putting 'A Bronx Tale' on stage is finding the right kid for the early scenes. Problem solved: Loverro brings real street edge to the young Calogero, who prefers being feared, like Sonny, to being beloved, like his financially struggling father (Richard H. Blake).
'A Bronx Tale,' which opened on Thursday night at the Longacre Theatre, isn't a bad musical. It just doesn't seem a necessary one. The story, about a boy's coming of age in an Italian neighborhood in the Bronx in the 1960s, has had a long, chameleon-like existence. Created by actor Chazz Palminteri as a one-man show, he performed it off-Broadway in 1989. It was turned into a film, starring Palminteri, in 1993, and then, in 2007, Palminteri brought the semiautobiographical solo production to Broadway.
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