A Bronx Tale.

Chazz Palminteri wrote "A Bronx Tale" in the 1989 as a play, it would become a movie in the 1990's and a Broadway musical in 2016. Tonight at The Morristown Performing Arts Center Palminteri brought his one man show in. Chazz is short for Calogero, the little boy who saw Sonny, the crime boss kill a man on 187 th Street in the Bronx.

While the show is only 80 minutes without an intermission, Palminteri covers the entire crux of the book. With a sparse stage and minimal lighting, he only relies on sound for the most part as an effect to his work telling this story about his life growing up. The movie would be his breakout role as Sonny, the big boss in the Bronx area.

When the movie was originally released it starred Robert De Nero who also directed it. It featured a lot of character actors but no really big stars. The movie would go on to both audience acclaim and critical acclaim. The movies cinematography was brilliant as it took us back to the early 60's when the Bronx around Fordham Road was starting to change.

On stage tonight Palminteri was able to take us back into the movie through deft acting and imagination. Even though this story was a great deal about his life, his life's work if you will, he was seamless in conveying the story too us.

The different areas in the 50' and 60's in different sections of the Bronx had their own personalities. Most of the sections were separated by nationalities and or religions. Where the Grand Concourse was mostly Jewish and Valentine Avenue was mostly Irish, 187th st and Belmont Ave, where the story takes place, Arthur Avenue and the surrounding area was Italian. In the movie we get a good flavor of the moires of this Italian culture. Here tonight, we get that same flavor of the culture of where the writer grew up. Both religion and family values are front and center. The parents were people who guided the children and looked after them. The neighborhood was looked after by the wise guys.

Even though the neighborhood was second generation Italian and parents wanted their children to get a good education, a great degree was placed on street smarts. Growing up at this particular time in this area saw a changing wind. Blacks were moving into Fordham Road, the racial divide was hitting the country, especially in the inner cities and people had to navigate the streets that were beginning to turn mean.

The solo show is a mere recreation of the movie, however, the way he tells it you feel like you are back in time and in a place that is known as the Bronx. As the play goes on we get a sense that we are blasted back in time with Sonny and "C" as our story tellers. We get a laugh out of the characters who also enter our lives during these 80 minutes. People with the nicknames like: "Mo Mo", "Coffee Cake"," The Whale" and "Mush". This is not unlike many of the other boroughs in New York City. The different personalities of the neighborhoods is what made these areas special. Where "Dion and The Belmont's" ruled the airways, (they got their name because they grew up on Belmont Avenue in the Bronx) the neighborhood was proud of the singing group and the accomplishments that came with other successes from people in the neighborhood.

"A Bronx Tale" whether in book form, movie form or onstage is a story that could be in many places in the world. The fact that it is so close to our hearts for anyone who is from New York City, who can relate to these people, makes it even better!

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