Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents "A Bronx Tale" One Man Show with Chazz Palminteri on Saturday, April 2, 2022, at 8:00pm at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.
In 1988, before it became a hit Broadway musical or a feature film co-starring Robert DeNiro, Palminteri wrote and performed this A Bronx Tale- bringing 18 characters to vivid life in a gripping tale of his rough childhood on the Bronx streets. And now Center audiences can see his classic coming of age story that started it all for him.
This powerful play depicts his bruising youthful experiences in great detail -- including witnessing gangland slayings - and at the time it was first produced was showcased in both Los Angeles and New York. An unknown film commodity at the time, Palminteri had stubbornly refused to sell "A Bronx Tale" (offers went into the seven figures) unless he was part of the package as both actor and screenwriter.
It finally sparked the interest of Palminteri's idol
Robert De Niro, who was looking to make his directorial film debut. De Niro, who saw the potential of "A Bronx Tale," became Palminteri's mentor, backing him up all the way, and the rest is history. The film of "A Bronx Tale" (1993) earned strong reviews, with Palminteri as its screenwriter and actor, playing the role of Sonny, the gangster, and featuring his actress/producer/wife
Gianna Palminteri. Since then, Palminteri has as an actor with more 50 films to his name, including "The Usual Suspects," "Bullets Over Broadway," and "Analyze This."
Single tickets for "A Bronx Tale" One Man Show starring
Chazz Palminteri at Segerstrom Center for the Arts start at $39 and are now available online at
SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. For inquiries about group ticket discounts for 10 or more, call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236.
Bronx-born and raised
Chazz Palminteri was the natural choice to receive the passing of the Italianate torch in film. In the tradition set forth in the 1970s by such icons as director
Martin Scorsese and actors
Robert De Niro,
Al Pacino,
John Cazale and
Joe Pesci, Palminteri has brought grit, muscle and an evocative realism to the sidewalks of his New York neighborhood, violent as they are and were. Chazz was born Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri in 1952 in the Bronx, New York, the son of Rose, a homemaker, and Lorenzo Palminteri, a bus driver.
He grew up in a tough area of the Bronx, giving him life lessons that would later prove very useful to his career. He graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School and started out pursuing his craft in 1973, studying at the Actor's Studio. He appeared off-Broadway in the early 1980s, while paying his dues as a bouncer and doorman in nightclubs, among other jobs.
In 1986 he headed west and found that his ethnic qualifications was well-suited for getting tough-talker parts. Slick attorneys, unflinching hoods and hard-nosed cops were all part of his ethnic streetwise persona in such TV shows as "Wiseguy" (1987), "Matlock" (1986), and "Hill Street Blues" (1981). In films, he started off playing a 1930s-style gangster in
Sylvester Stallone's "Oscar" (1991). Although his roles were sharp, well-acted and with a distinct edge to them, there was nothing in them to show that he was capable of stronger leading parts.
At age 41, Palminteri became an "overnight" star. Other important projects quickly fell his way. He received a well-deserved Oscar nomination the following year for his portrayal of a Runyonesque hit man in
Woody Allen's hilarious jazz-era comedy "Bullets Over Broadway" (1994). He was on the right side of the law in both "The Perez Family" (1995), his first romantic lead, and then the classic crimer "The Usual Suspects" (1995). He played the ill-fated brute in "Diabolique" (1996) and wrote a second screenplay, "Faithful" (1996), in which he again plays a hit man, terrorizing both Cher and
Ryan O'Neal.
Though Palminteri was invariably drawn into a rather tight-fitting, often violent typecasting, it has been a secure and flashy one that continues to run strong into the millennium. True to form his trademark flesh-lipped snarl was spotted in gritty urban settings playing a "Hell's Kitchen" cop in "One Eyed King" (2001) starring actor/producer
Armand Assante; a pool hustler and mentor in "Poolhall Junkies" (2002); a mob boss in "In the Fix" (2005); a dirty cop in "Running Scared" (2006); the titular scam artist as "Yonkers Joe" (2008); a karaoke-loving Italian psychiatrist in "Once More with Feeling" (2009); and an abusive husband and father in "Mighty Fine" (2012).
Other later films include starring presences in "Body Armour"( 2007), "The Dukes" (2007), the title conman as "Yonkers Joe" (2008), and "Once More with Feeling" (2009), as well as prime supports in "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" (2006), "Push" (2006), "Jolene" (2008), "Once Upon a Time in Queens" (2013), "Legend" (2015), "Vault" (2019), and "Clover" (2020). TV crime continues to occupy his time as well, clocking in such series credits as "Kojak" (2005), "Rizzoli & Isles" (2010) and "Godfather of Harlem" (2019). Occasionally he will lighten up -- as in his recurring role as Shorty on the popular sitcom, "Modern Family" (2009).
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