Actor/playwright Chazz Palminteri was in Cleveland earlier this week to talk about turning his story, “ A Bronx Tale,” into a musical. It might never have happened if he hadn’t lost a job.
In the late 1980s, the then-struggling actor was moonlighting as a doorman at a club, when he refused to admit legendary agent Irving “Swifty” Lazar. That got Palminteri fired. So he used the time to write a semi-autobiographical play about growing up in the Bronx.
The one man show, played to rave reviews. Among its fans was actor Robert DeNiro, who teamed with Palminteri to make a film version of “A Bronx Tale” in 1993, which really helped launch Palminteri’s career. In 2016, a musical version opened on Broadway. The national tour of “ A Bronx Tale: The Musical” comes to Playhouse Square next spring.