Nick Cordero, Hudson Loverro & cast               photos by Joan Marcus

 

 

 

                                               By Eugene Paul

 

Chazz Palminteri’s 1989 solo performance, written by him, A Bronx Tale, grew into his hit movie starring him and has morphed into a great big Broadway musical knowingly crafted encompassing a superlative cast of thirty, mostly unknown, a superb production company of twenty theatre craftsmen, mostly well known, star quality directors, a vast number of supporting hands and a sturdily compact group of producers who are keeping it all in their very own control.  It’s impressive, a perfect parlay. Built to be one of the most enjoyable shows in town.  And it is.   It’s establishing prospective new stars, Bobby Conte Thornton, Hudson Loverro and Ariana DeBose and definitely recognizes that commanding Nick Cordero is a formidable musical theater star. It’s loud and bright and funny and touching,, so maybe there’s hope if Life imitates Art.

 

 

On its way to pushing all the buttons, it tells the tale of little ten year old Calogero, (remarkable Hudson Loverro) petrified into immobility on the stoop of his apartment building as the neighborhood consiglieri, Sonny, (outstanding Nick Cordero) shoots a man dead, then puts another bullet into the dead man’s head as he is lying there, right in front of little Calogero. Suddenly aware that the child has seen the whole operation, Sonny gives the kid a stony, significant glare, then walks off arrogantly, master of his domain, Belmont Avenue.

 

These events would be even starker if it weren’t for composer Alan Menken’s  rousing story book opening number involving  marvelous dancers devilishly recreating choreographer Sergio Trujillo’s innovative takes on 60’s style moves, snappy chicks giving the goombahs the finger,  self adoring doo wop guys doo wopping, and set designer Beowulf Boritt’s story book color saturated settings all perfectly delivered through Gareth Owen’s cannily pitched sound design so you don’t miss a syllable.

 

Little Calogero doesn’t give up Sonny to the cops –- to rat is the biggest sin – and becomes the apple of Sonny’s jaded eye. Little Calogero is introduced to Rudy the Voice (Joey Sorge), Eddie Mush (Jonathan Brody), Jojo the Whale (Michael Barra) Frankie Coffeecake (Ted Brunetti) and Tony Ten-to-Two (Paul Salvatoriello), Sonny’s henchmen.  He becomes  C, as Sonny dubs him,-- “Calogero is too much to say”--  remaining in Sonny’s thrall well into his teens and telling us all about it, right alongside his young self,  Calogero. There’s a painful rift with the father he adores who can’t stand to have his son associate with the likes of Sonny, his dad an honest bus driver Lorenzo (excellent Richard H. Blake in great voice) who has married Calogero’s mother, Rosina (fine Lucia Giannetta), once Sonny’s old flame.

 

Hudson Hudson Loverro, Robert H. Blake and Lucia Giannetta

 

Yes, all the buttons. How does young C know how to live?  Sonny, the source of all knowledge, lays it all out in  “ Nicky Machiavelli”, which reduces everything so simply: you live by love or fear.  Sonny believes in fear.  That’s why everybody is so nice to him and since C is under his heavy wing, so nice to C. It’s so simple. But that’s not the way his father lives.

 

Ariana DeBose and cast

 

When teen ager C’s smitten eye lands on incredible Jane (bewitching Ariana DeBose) – she and her girl friends Denise (Christiani Pitts) and Frieda (Trista Dollison)  from the black neighborhood a couple of blocks away are taking a forbidden walk home from school  through C’s Italian neighborhood, there goes another button. But things take a more than interesting turn because you can’t keep your eyes off Ariana DeBose. She lights up the stage, and teen ager C, in desperation, seeks  advice, in a roundabout way from his dad, but much more directly from Sonny. Girls: how do you know if she is the right girl for you, what do you do, what are the clues, how should you act, and Sonny delivers the goods for now and the future in a knockout number, “One of the Great Ones”. With a noticeable difference:  there’s more than one right one for Sonny. The keys to the car are the clue. His explanation is a milestone.  Sonny lends C. his very own, very hot car. Armed with his new knowledge and his new babe magnet, C asks Jane for a date.

 

But C didn’t ask his buds. And Jane didn’t tell her brother. Another button, the race one.

 

Co-directors, Robert De Niro and Jerry Zaks have their eyes, their ears, their hands and their art  on everything; the story Alan Menken’s music, Glen Slater’s lyrics, Sergio Trujillo’s choreography,  the way the Beowulf Boritt’s sets work as part of comment on the tale unfolding, the impact of  costume designer William Ivey Long’s clothes have, lighting designer Howell Binkley’s taste, his pacing, his emphasis, and a hundred other factors, all to portray playwright Palminteri’s story in its best light because two powerful and conflicting forces are at loggerheads: this is what the words tell us, this is what the actions say. Of course, they want us to come away with the message in the words. But the other message is right there for us to see. The mold has become part of the American grain.

 

                                                         

A Bronx Tale.At the Longacre Theatre, 220 West 48^th Street.  Tickets: $50-$197. $39 rush. 877-536-3437. 2 hrs. Open run.