#jerryzaks

By Shani Friedman

On Sunday, actor/writer/director Chazz Palminteri took to the stage at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College to perform A Bronx Tale for a one-night only show in New York. Palminteri created and wrote Tale in the 1980s when he was a struggling actor and singer in Los Angeles. The one-man show revolved around his Bronx childhood when he lived at the intersection of East 187th Street and Belmont Avenue. That very Italian neighborhood was full of many rich and colorful characters like his father Lorenzo - a beloved and respected family man and city bus driver – and Sonny - the powerful mobster who became a second father to Cologio (Palminteri’s real name) – all brought to life by Palminteri. Robert De Niro, who saw the show in LA, was instrumental in helping him launch his career. The show moved to New York and during its four month Off Broadway run Palminteri wrote the screenplay for the movie version that De Niro would go on to helm for his directorial debut in 1993. Since then, A Bronx Tale had a Broadway run during the 2007-2008 season under the guidance of Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, who is overseeing this tour and was in the audience for Sunday’s performance.

Although Palminteri was in his 30s when he first did the show in LA, he was fit and energetic on Sunday, which was a good thing since he did the voices for 18 characters. He painted a loving and lovely portrait of the conflicting pillars of his youth: his close-knit family who wanted nothing to do with the gangster next door and Sonny, who killed a man in front of innocent but admiring nine-year-old Cologio. Sonny’s crew was made up of guys named Frankie Coffeecake and Joe Joe the Whale – “you didn’t walk with Joe Joe. You walked amongst him.” There were a lot of laughs but the deeply-felt core of the show was Palminteri’s relationships with his father and Sonny as he grew up. There was a great deal of humour and poignancy packed into 90 minutes and it’s a testament to Palminteri and the characters that I would have happily spent more time with them.