A Bronx Tale The Musical

[angelenroute]

Surely the sign of a great musical is how you're left feeling by the time the show ends. Last night I traveled to Millburn, New Jersey to see the world-premiere of A Bronx Tale The Musical. The show is playing for just one month, and closes this weekend, but has hopes of making the leap to Broadway sometime soon. So how was I feeling at the close of the show? How did it affect me? Well, I was surprised to find myself crying and smiling, and feeling both emotional and extremely impressed!

There's often a lot of chatter surrounding shows like this before they make the leap across the river to Manhattan. Is it ready? Does it deserve to be on Broadway? At first I wasn't sure. It seemed too simple in a lot of ways, too much of a regional feel. But the more I watched, the more I realized they really do have a bona fide winner on their hands. The music's there, the comedy, the drama, the staging, and the set. It's all there, and it was fantastic. And yet, I'd still just give it a B+.

Why? A Bronx Tale The Musical is like a perfect little gift box glowing from within. You know it's made of greatness, and you can see so much of the greatness glowing from around the edges, but you also know it's still *this close* from bursting forth into an A or even an A+ show, and just hasn't yet.

The sets were wonderful. Beautiful choices there all around, including what seemed to be recycled 3-story balconies from Newsies. Same as with that show, the balconies turn and move forward at different times to help stretch the stage upward and outward. Unlike in Newsies though, they don't employ choreography there to move characters around up, down, and across. I think that's a very wise decision though, as if they did that, I'd be thinking too much of Newsies instead of A Bronx Tale. A lot of the set is bathed in red, too, seemingly to mimic the red of blood, if not just the dangerous situations going on throughout. I feel this could be improved upon and complemented with more use of red lighting. I didn't sense they had any, but if they did, it was way too subtle.

The actors were all great. My favorite was (Older) Calogero, played by Jason Gotay. He smiled at us sweetly, like he was our best friend telling us a story, and I'll be damned if he didn't suck me in magically through that approach.

Besides attending to see Paper Mill Playhouse for the first time and seeing a very buzzed-about new show, I also went because Joshua Colley plays Young Calogero. Joshua is the young performer who you may remember belting out the role of a Young Jean Valjean for the 2015 Easter Bonnet fundraiser (https://vimeo.com/125850012). His incredible singing can also be seen in this video: https://vimeo.com/136366069. I'd seen him in Les Mis and Newsies, as well as at the Madison Square Garden production of Elf and at the 54 Below nightclub Newsies reunion, so I was extremely upset to find out when I got there that his understudy was on in his place. His understudy was great, the audience members loved him, and that's all that matters, but I wish I'd seen Josh.

A Bronx Tale runs about two hours total including intermission, and I got the feeling some of the songs could have easily been made longer. I'm a big fan of Alan Menken, and he turned in a fantastic score here, too. My only criticism about the music itself was that Mr. Menken introduced a couple of themes here and there which he never launched into fuller pieces. It was like he didn't realize he had something fantastic right under his nose that he could have explored more fully. Not saying a lot of the other songs weren't fabulous--instant classics even--just that he has even more there he could work with if he takes the time. (I wouldn't exactly say I'm an expert or anything, so I should probably just shut up now about that.)

The Paper Mill Playhouse really is a beautiful theatre, and the seats, especially Orchestra, were all great. If you've ever been tempted to catch a production there, traveling is simple enough. Catch a New Jersey Transit train from Penn Station to Millburn, NJ. Walk to the end of the platform and you'll see a sign telling you where to go from there. You basically just follow the path past the parking lots and a football field, then make a right and follow the sidewalk up. It's about a 10-minute walk from the train station (15 minutes tops), and mostly well lit.

I hope the show makes it to Broadway, and I think it will, especially based on the buzz I both heard and overhead from theatre patrons and employees alike. There's a sense that everyone feels very strongly that it deserves a shot at the big time. If it does make it there, it would be well worth your time and money to go see it. Lots of laughs, high drama, fantastic story, and a beautiful set. I had a great time, and will definitely see it again--and buy the soundtrack--if I have the chance to do so.

Sean

[atreyu]

I never got around to commenting on A Bronx Tale The Musical that I got to see on its final Saturday night at Paper Mill Playhouse. Part of that was a matter of merely echoing a lot of Sean's review, how I enjoy Alan Menken's work, being very impressed with Joshua Colley's prior performances in Les Mis and Elf, The Musical and how A Bronx Tale The Musical was entertaining but still needed some work work before heading to the greatest city in the world. One significant difference from Sean's experience was actually seeing Joshua perform the Young Calogero role and he did not disappoint.

So for another glimpse of what this amazing talent can do, there is Joshua's take as Angelica Schuyler in 2016's MisCast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYmavCsp8Hs