A BRONX TALE

A lot of talent went into creating this production including Robert Westley's excellent fight sequences and William Ivey Long's costumes. Although there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this show – excellent acting and powerful legit voices – there is nothing particularly outstanding. It's akin to a satisfying meal that doesn't stick to your ribs or cause a bitter aftertaste. It's unmemorable, but nice.

I thought it was a good show. Not great, not game changing, but good. It was clearly in the mold of existing musicals. The music was quite enjoyable, and a number of the songs easily stuck in your head. The individual performances were strong. But overall, as a piece, it was … good. Part of that the interracial plot line, which could have been good had it gone somewhere (for a while, I was thinking of the musical Memphis), but it just fizzed away. In terms of long term impact, I felt that Friday night's show, Dear Evan Hansen, had much more staying power and a much stronger overall message. I liked the message of A Bronx Tale, especially the tag line of “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices that you make will shape your life forever.” But I think in terms of today's generation, the former message of “No one deserves to be forgotten, no one deserves to fade away.” has more resonance. So, in my eyes, A Bronx Tale (The Musical) was good and enjoyable, but didn't rise to the level of great. On the other hand, my wife enjoyed A Bronx Tale immensely. She liked the music, she liked the story, she liked the performances. She had been troubled by the fact that Dear Evan Hansen, ultimately, was built around a lie, and when those walls came crashing down, a lot of people were hurt by the lie. She found that A Bronx Tale had a better message for her: a message about making the right choices, about choosing to do the right thing and growing and benefiting from it.

Overall, A BRONX TALE makes for a fun night at the theater. It's colorful, full of fabulous live music performed by an orchestra that is certainly one of the highlights of the show.

I have fond memories of the film, and I admire the talent of everyone involved. But in the end, the conflicting styles do not mesh, leaving the polished, ably talented performers with nowhere to go. Perhaps the co-direction of Messrs. Zaks and De Niro is the culprit. One is known for his wonderfully slick, funny, fast-paced way with Broadway musicals and comedy. The other… isn't.

Directed by two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro and four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, A BRONX TALE has the audience walking out of the Pantages smiling.

Replete with goofy Sicilian nicknames, typically hilarious one-liners, hot-heads, fedoras, a leading man with a kickin' smile, and plenty of attitude, A Bronx Tale, playing the Hollywood Pantages Theatre for its Los Angeles premiere and at the start of its North American tour, is an audience pleaser down to Sonny's Sharkskin suit.

The problem with the understandable comparisons to musicals like Jersey Boys and West Side Story is that A Bronx Tale borrows the least interesting aspects from other stories of this era, resulting in a show that is pleasant but ultimately mediocre and forgettable.

The gifted actor De Niro shares directing credit here with the gifted Jerry Zaks, who helmed the solo show on Broadway. It's a safe guess De Niro developed the characters and Zaks made the staging fluid and, considering the subject matter, humorous. Even with the talents involved, however, the final product feels ordinary. Vocal and acting performances are adequate but not memorable. Even the, again, gifted choreographer Sergio Trujillo seems uninspired by the material. His dances look best, though, on tiny Leoni. If only every dancer on any stage would evidence the level of commitment yet ease with which the lad moves.

The bigassed Broadway musical version of Chazz Palminteri's once-humble 1989 one-man performance piece, co-directed by Robert DeNiro and Jerry Zaks and with an infectious Motown-meets-JERSEY BOYS score by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater, had its bareboned beginnings right here in good ol' El Lay. There's nothing earthshattering or new about the ultimately formulaic production, but it is remarkable that such a charming, comfortable little tale could, under the watch of some considerably talented dramatists, morph from a simple one-man show to become a huge, incredibly glitzy and exciting major musical production without losing its heart—or the impact of Palminteri and director Mark W. Travis' original concept.