A lot of people know “A Bronx Tale” as a coming-of-age crime drama starring Chazz Palminteri and Robert De Niro that was originally released in 1993, but not as many know its roots as a one-man play.  

Palminteri started the artistic endeavor in 1989 as an autobiographical tale detailing his life while growing up in the New York City borough. Palminteri is bringing his one-man play the Park Theatre on Nov. 23. Due to the buzz, there’s going to an encore performance on March 30, 2025.  

The following has been edited for clarity and space. 

Rob Duguay: While a lot of people know it as a film, “A Bronx Tale” originally started out as an autobiographical one-man play that you wrote. When it came to your vision for presenting it on stage, what made you want to be solo?  

Chazz Palminteri: I thought it was the honest way to tell the story, but also, I did it for myself because I felt that I had this idea to do the script on stage because I wanted to clap my hands every time there’s a cut. I wanted to get noticed and I wanted to make sure I got noticed, so I played all the characters, 18 characters.  

RD: You worked with Robert De Niro to make the play into a feature film. Did you have any sense that it would garner as much acclaim and appreciation? What were your initial expectations when you were making the film version of “A Bronx Tale”? 

CP: Well, I just wanted to make a great film. Did I know that it was going to be this iconic film for the last 30 years that transcended from a play to a movie to a musical? No. I just directed the play on film and it’s doing incredible. I just came from Portugal, which had their International Film Festival, and it tore the house down, so there’s four incarnations of this thing. I’ll tell ya Rob, I’ll hear people say that they saw the movie or they saw the play or they saw the musical and they’ll tell my things like “My son and I, we haven’t talked for years but now we talk after he saw the movie” or “My daughter was on drugs, but she saw the movie, thought about wasting her talent and now she’s off drugs.” I’ve heard these stories over the past 30 years and it’s unbelievable. 

This thing is bigger than me now and it’s a morality tale about life that everybody connects with, everybody. If people see the play and they love the play more than the movie and the musical, and the movie and the musical are great, don’t get me wrong, but I am Calogero. They’re getting first-hand information from the boy who saw the killing and it’s storytelling at its finest. Shakespeare used to say there’s only three things you can do to an audience if you want to have a hit: You can make them laugh, you can make them cry, or you can scare them. If you do two out of three, you got a hit and with “A Bronx Tale” the play, I make people laugh, I make them cry and I scare them, so you have to see the reaction.  

RD: I think a lot of people have taken your advice. Along with

“A Bronx Tale,” you’ve had an award-winning career with numerous films and TV shows on your resume, including “The Usual Suspects,” “A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints,” “Jade,” “Modern Family,” “Law & Order” and the film “Vault,” which is about the Bonded Vault Heist that happened in Providence in 1975 with you playing the role of the notorious mob boss Raymond Patriarca. Out of everything you’ve done in your career, where does “A Bronx Tale” stand?

CP: I try to speak humbly about myself, and I do try, but I’m the only guy ever to write the one-man show and star in it, write the movie and star in it, write the musical and star in it and write the movie of the one-man show and star in that. It’s never been done before, so I would have to say the reincarnation of “A Bronx Tale,” but I’m very proud of my work in “Bullets Over Broadway,” which I got nominated for.  “A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints” is one of my favorite movies of all-time and [I can say the same] for “The Usual Suspects,” of course.   

RD: With the work that’s in front of you, what motivates you these days to immerse yourself in it? 

CP: My father said, “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent,” and I don’t want to feel like I wasted my talent. I’ve had people tell me, ‘C’mon Chazz, you’ve done so much,” but I feel like I could’ve done more and I’m trying to do more.  

RD: That’s a great mindset to have. What can people expect when they see you perform your one man play?  

CP: It’s going to be exactly the same as I did 34 years ago, the only thing that’s changed is me. When I first started doing it, I used to relate more to the boy than the father because I was young and I didn’t have any children. As soon as I got married and had kids, I related more to the father than the boy and it just became richer and better so that’s about it, that’s the only way it’s changed. 

RD: Outside of performing “A Bronx Tale”, what other projects do you have going on these days? I know you have a podcast where you’ve had guests ranging from Mario Cantone to Fat Joe to Shaquille O’Neal, so has that been your primary focus?  

CP: The podcast has been hugely successful and I encourage people to follow me on Instagram so they can see the list of dates and where I’m appearing so they can see the shows. I’m very, very excited about my podcast on YouTube, but it’s also on Spotify, Google and Apple [Podcasts]. I reach a couple million people a month, so I enjoy doing that.