FLASH FRIDAY: Chazz Palminteri's A BRONX TALE on Broadway; Soon To Be a Musical at Paper Mill

Chazz Palminteri began writing his autobiographical solo play, A BRONX TALE, after being fired from a bouncer job for refusing entry to showbiz super-agent Swifty Lazar.

After his story of a young boy from a working class family who gets involved with organized crime had its 1990 premiere in Los Angeles, Palminteri took the show to New York for an Off-Broadway run where one of its many admirers was Acadamy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro. The playwright agreed to sell De Niro the film rights, but only if he could write the screenplay and be cast in the role of Sonny, the charismatic mob boss.

The film was De Niro's directorial debut and helped launch a successful career for Palminteri, who took A BRONX TALE to Broadway for over 100 performances in 2007.

Now A BRONX TALE heads to New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse as a new musical, co-directed by De Niro and Tony-winner Jerry Zaks with a book by Palminteri and a score by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater.

Leading the company are Jason Gotay as Calogero, Joshua Colley as Young Calogero, Nick Cordero as Sonny, Richard H. Blake as Lorenzo, Coco Jones as Jane and Lucia Giannetta as Rosina. A Bronx Tale: The Musical will run at the Millburn, New Jersey theater from February 4, 2016, through March 6, 2016. The official press opening night is Sunday, February 14, at 7:00 pm.

But for now let's skip the song and dance and flashback to a few scenes of the playwright/star performing A BRONX TALE on Broadway.