A Bronx Tale with Chazz Palminteri

Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 7pm at Union County Performing Arts Center

“A Bronx Tale is a 1993 American coming-of-age crime drama film directed by and starring Robert De Niro in his directorial debut and produced by Jane Rosenthal, adapted from Chazz Palminteri‘s 1989 play of the same name. It tells the coming of age story of an Italian-American boy, Calogero, who, after encountering a local Mafia boss, is torn between the temptations of organized crime and the values of his honest, hardworking father, as well as racial tensions in his community. The Broadway production was converted to film with limited changes, and starred Palminteri and De Niro.

De Niro, who first viewed the play in Los Angeles in 1990, acquired the rights from Palminteri, intent on making the play his directorial debut. The duo then worked heavily together on the screenplay, with Palminteri aiming to retain many of the aspects of the original script, as it was based largely on his own childhood. Production began in 1991, and was funded in collaboration with De Niro’s TriBeCa Productions and Savoy Pictures, as the first film released by each studio.”—Wikipedia

A Bronx Tale premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 14, 1993, and released in the United States on September 29, 1993. The film [was a hit] with critics, who praised the performances of the leads, and launched Palminteri’s acting & writing career. Robert DeNiro created a classic in his direction of A Bronx Tale.