Last Chance to Catch A Bronx Tale at the Harrahs

	by Harrahs Resort Atlantic City on Thursday, August 06, 2009
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Last chance to catch A Bronx Tale with Chazz Palminteri at Harrah's Resort is this weekend!

Show Times:
Thursday - 8pm
Friday through Sunday - 9pm

THIS SHOW CONTAINS MATURE CONTENT AND IS INTENDED FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY

For more info, visit: www.abronxtaletour.com

LAST DATES A Bronx Tale - Thursday, Aug. 6, PURCHASE NOW A Bronx Tale - Friday, Aug. 7, PURCHASE NOW A Bronx Tale - Saturday, Aug. 8, PURCHASE NOW A Bronx Tale - Sunday, Aug. 9, PURCHASE NOW

About the Show -

Chazz Palminteri seems to have done it all. He's been nominated for an Academy Award (Woody Allen's"Bullets Over Broadway"), acted alongside Robert De Niro, was directed by David Lynch ("Mulholland Falls") and has even voiced cartoon characters ("Hoodwinked").

All of that success, however, is connected to one project: "A Bronx Tale," a one-man show he wrote for himself that debuted in 1990 in Los Angeles, moved to New York for an off-Broadway run, was adapted into a 1993 film version starring himself and De Niro and then resurrected again for a Broadway revival in 2007 and, eventually, a national tour.

"I would say the career-defining moment for me, the one day when it clicked that I accomplished what I wanted to, was the first time I did 'Bronx Tale' in front of a theater audience," says Palminteri, who brings the show to Harrah's Resort from Wednesday, July 1, to Aug. 9. "I was like, 'Wow! Holy s--t. What just happened there?' It was an amazing moment."

Based on his life as a boy growing up in the Bronx section of New York, Palminteri seamlessly weaves in and out of 18 characters to tell the story of Colagero Anello, a young boy who befriends a local mob boss to the chagrin of his bus driver father.

Even though Palminteri has been performing "A Bronx Tale" - off and on - for 20 years, the show never made its way to Atlantic City, something Palminteri is glad to rectify.

"I never performed in Atlantic City before at all," Palminteri says. "So it's very exciting for me. I am looking forward to it. There's a whole generation of people that never saw the show. They may have seen the movie, but not the show. People 12 to 90 see it and love it. I go to places like Austin, Texas, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin., and they don't know anything about Italian people and still love it. When they see me as Colagero and Sonny and I maneuver in and out of characters ? I'm like a rocket ship. And people relate."

The 57-year-old, born Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri, says the show has crossover appeal because it's so much more than your average mob tale.

"It's about a father and mother raising their son to the best of their ability, and the relationship between the father and son really resonates with people because nearly everyone has a son or daughter," Palminteri says. "The show deals with racism. I wanted to write a story about the working man. It's really about my father. Sonny is the antagonist, but he's a likeable one. 'A Bronx Tale' is not about good and evil. It's about gray and gray. Colagero takes the best of both men - his father and Sonny - and becomes a man. He couldn't help but be influenced. And there are interesting things about both men. Even though Sonny was in the mob, he was OK with Colagero dating a black girl. His father wasn't. His father was good to black people on the bus, but when it came to his son dating a black girl, he wasn't sure about that. So there are many layers to it."

After bringing the show back after a long hiatus, Palminteri says he's not sure he'll ever be able to let it go.

"I guess I will give it up when I have to, but I would really like to keep doing it for a few more years," Palminteri says. "We're going to Vegas in October. It's such a great show. It took me a year to write it and then I worked on it in front of live audiences, I would write 10 minutes, use three, write 20, use five. I made sure it was an incredibly tight one-man show. It took a while to get the characters down, but once I did it, it just clicked. I have done more than 330 performances, and I never once did not get a standing ovation. And they are not polite standing ovations. People love it."