Chazz Brings ‘A Bronx Tale’ to the Bay Area
By Pat Craig
So Chazz Palminteri, on the phone from L.A., says the whole deal with “A Bronx Tale” was about survival — you know, a matter of eating or not eating after his first brush with fame ran out of gas and he discovered not knowing the right people could be hazardous to his wallet.
It’s a good story, but none of it is in “Bronx Tale,” which opens at 8 p.m. Wednesday (after a Tuesday preview) in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre.
Palminteri’s L.A. story begins when the cash from TV’s “Hill Street Blues” ran out and he picked up a job as a doorman. That was going OK until one day when he refused to let a guy in and his doorman career blew up like 30 seconds over Toluca Lake.
The actor’s crime was not recognizing Swifty Lazar, the Hollywood super-agent and dealmaker, who was unaccustomed to a low profile among doormen.
“I got fired,” Palminteri says with a verbal shrug that plays perfectly over the phone. “So I started to write.”
The experts tell you to write what you know, so Palminteri began spinning yarns about growing up in the Bronx, including one tale where he kept his mouth shut after witnessing a Mafia killing.
His first audience for the stories were members of his acting class, who saw Palminteri act out the best of what he had written each week. Waiting to hear what story he would tell during class was another plus to show up.
Even then, the actor knew he had gold. He selected the best of the stories to be part of a one-man show, which he started performing in L.A., and later in New York and around the country.
He was making money but he wasn’t rich, so it took some courage to turn down a million bucks when Hollywood came knocking.
“It was kind of like Stallone and ‘Rocky’; he wouldn’t sell it unless he could write the script and star in it,” says Palminteri, who wanted essentially the same deal for himself. “Do you know how hard it is to turn down a million when you don’t have anything?”
Finally, he made a deal with Robert De Niro, who agreed to let Palminteri write the piece and take the starring role. The film “A Bronx Tale” was a hit and relaunched the actor’s career, which now includes more than 50 movies, numerous television appearances and at least one very successful one-man theatrical project.
His stage version of “A Bronx Tale” plays in the Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Golden Grate Ave., San Francisco, 8 p.m. Tuesdays- Saturdays and 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays-Sundays, from Tuesday through Oct. 19. Tickets, at $40-$85, may be reserved at 415-512- 7770 or www.ticketmaster.com.
“HELLO, CAROL! A CELEBRATION OF CAROL CHANNING” kicks off the San Francisco Performing Arts Museum’s tribute to Channing with a concert Thursday in the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco.
The concert will be followed Sept. 26 with the opening of an exhibit of Channing paraphernalia, much from her own collection, at the Performing Arts Library & Museum on the second floor of the theater building. The display will include such things as costumes from Channing’s plays and movies, along with rare photos, films, videos, posters and artworks from the performer’s career.
All proceeds from the concert will go to the Dr. Carol Channing (honorary degree from Cal State Stanislaus) and Harry Kullijian Foundation for the Arts, a program taking up most of Channing’s and Kullijian’s (her husband and an old school chum from San Francisco) time.
“The foundation was created so that the public school system in the state can cut another 4 billion dollars and we can still have money for the arts in the schools,” Channing said. “The idea of the foundation is not to create more artists, but to expose all students to the arts. Because once you are exposed to them, the whole world opens up to you.”
Channing, who grew up in San Francisco and graduated from Lowell High School, says she was fortunate because the city offered numerous artistic opportunities, from museums to concerts in Sigmund Stern Grove, free. She also feels blessed that her parents had an interest in the arts and shared it with her.
Channing says she’s pleased the museum is presenting an exhibition through March that’s devoted to her career; she’s loaned PALM several items, including gowns she wore in “Hello, Dolly!”
Channing performs at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave. Guests include Carole Cooke and Rita Moreno, along with the California Pops Orchestra. Tickets are $30-$65 show only, $125 VIP for show and post-show reception. Contact 415-392-4400 or www.cityboxoffice.com.
“HELEN’S MOST FAVORITE DAY,” by Mark Dunn, opens at 8:30 tonight in the Onstage Theatre in Pleasant Hill.
The play tells the story of love at “second sight,” and a wish that dooms Helen to repeat the best day of her life forever, unless she can be rescued.
The show plays at 8:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m. Oct. 2 and 9 and 2:30 p.m. Sept. 28 and Oct. 5, in the theater at 2025 Oak Park Blvd. Tickets, at $15, may be reserved at 925-944-9006.
“VERA WILDE,” a “vaudevillian musical” by Seattle playwright and composer Chris Jeffries, opens at 8 tonight in Shotgun Players’ Ashby Stage in Berkeley.
The play combines the lives of two 19th century people who lived on the radical side — author Oscar Wilde and Vera Zasulich, known as “The Mother of Terrorism.”
Their lives came together in a sense when Wilde wrote his first play, “Vera, or the Nihilists,” about Zasulich.
The show runs at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays through Oct. 26 in the theater at 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. Tickets cost $25 or pay-what- you-can the first week of performances, then $17 Thursdays, $22 Fridays and Sundays and $25 Saturdays. Reservations may be made at 510-841-6500 or www.shotgunplayers.org.
“LUCASVILLE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF A PRISON UPRISING,” by Gary Anderson and Staughton Lynd, is based on a book by Lynd and uses recordings made during the prison standoff. It opens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Plymouth United Church of Christ, 424 Monte Vista Ave., Oakland.
The play, which is touring the country but features local actors at each stop, is the story of the aftermath of a 1990s prisoner rebellion at Lucasville, Ohio, where 10 men died and five were placed on death row after the incident.
“Lucasville” focuses on the friendship of three Black Muslims and two Aryan Brotherhood members who continue defying the state, even while facing the prospect of being put to death. Their story begins after negotiations settle the incident peacefully. The men were considered organizers of the uprising and spokesman for the prisoners. The state sought and obtained death sentences for those convicted of murdering a correctional officer, despite compelling evidence of their innocence. The show plays at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Sept. 27. Tickets, at $13, are available at the door. The show is produced by the Justice and Witness Ministry, and more information is available at 510-654-5044.
“INTO THE WOODS,” the Stephen Sondheim musical that takes a look at what happened following “happily ever after” in some of the most beloved fairy tales, opens Saturday in the San Mateo Performing Arts Center, 600 N. Delaware, San Mateo.
The Broadway by the Bay production features characters in “Little Red Riding Hood,”"Cinderella,”"Rapunzel” and “Jack and the Beanstalk” as they chase their dreams into the woods.
The show plays at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 5. Tickets, at $17-$45, may be reserved at 650-579- 5565 or www.broadwaybythebay.org.
Reach Pat Craig at pcraig@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Originally published by Pat Craig, Contra Costa Times.
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