Bronx Bomber Chazz Palminteri hits a home run with his engaging one-man show 'A Bronx Tale' at Harrah's

By Lori Hoffman

Chazz Palminteri was a struggling actor when he wrote a one-man play about his experiences growing up in the Bronx as a pal of the neighborhood mob boss. That play, A Bronx Tale, eventually became an acclaimed movie and launched Palminteri's career as a well-respected character actor.

In 2007 Palminteri decided to revive A Bronx Tale and it became an acclaimed Broadway hit. Now he has brought his engaging play to the Concert Venue at Harrah's Resort. The show is wonderful (see sidebar) and so is the man who lived it, wrote it and performs it six days a week.

Palminteri recently sat down for a heart-to-heart chat on his stage stoop (See video).

Why did you bring back A Bronx Tale after all these years?

For the past almost 19 years people have been saying, "I loved that movie, but I saw the play. Oh, the play was great." So I thought about it. There's a whole new generation that never got a chance to see it. I'm going to bring it back. I brought it to Broadway and it was a bigger hit then when we first did it.

You want to talk about timing. I was offered $250,000 to walk away. They didn't want me in it. They wanted to put a star in it. I said no, then they went to $500,000, then they went to $1 million and I still said no. I remember walking out of the studio when I turned down a million dollars. I said, Well, I hope I'm doing the right thing. About three days later, Robert De Niro walks into the theater [and] sees the show. He comes into my dressing room. We talk. He says, "I know you want to play Sonny. You would be great as Sonny. You should write this screenplay because it is about your life and I'll play Lorenzo and I'll direct it. If you shake my hand, that's the way it will be." It was pretty incredible that Robert De Niro was making his directorial debut playing my father, about my life.

I think the best part about doing it here at Harrah's is that people here might not ever go to a Broadway show. It's a whole different audience. They love it. They stand up just like the Broadway audiences. It's more like an event [than a show]. It's me playing 18 characters, telling the story.

I did. I was in a band called Razzamachazz. I used to work the Concord Hotel many years ago up in the Catskills. We traveled all over the world. It was fun, but my heart was always into acting and writing. When I got that opportunity, I just took it.