On Saturday, September 6 actor and storyteller Chazz Palminteri brought the assembled crowd to a standing ovation at the Fox Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino with his moving play "A Bronx Tale," a story he lived that phenomenally changed the course of his life.
Witnessing a murder at any age is traumatic, but for an impressionable nine year old lad it can be devastating. Chazz was sitting on his front stoop, in his Bronx neighborhood, when the unthinkable happened. How to process such an episode of violence? What to tell the police? Why did it happen? What would the church dictate he do?
in "A Bronx Tale," Palminteri relives his youth, writing the story in bits and pieces for an acting class, adding minute by suspenseful minute until it culminated at one hour and forty minutes of drama. On stage, he inhabits eighteen different characters, focusing mainly on the two father figures who dominated his growing up years: his father Lorenzo and the man who committed the murder he witnessed, the "boss of all bosses," the capo di tutti capi, Sonny.
His morally righteous dad was at odds with his rival Sonny who commanded by instilling fear in his opponents. From both men, Chazz learned life lessons about how to conduct himself, principles that have served him well. Neither man wanted him to waste his talents on a life of crime. Sonny wanted Chazz to be his redemption.
Now Palminteri rules the stage with authority, paying homage to those long ago years. The play has since been adapted for the big screen, with Robert DeNiro as Lorenzo and Chazz as Sonny, with DeNiro making his directorial debut.
Don't miss "A Bronx Tale" whenever this actor and master storyteller brings his life- altering youth to amazing life.
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