Aren’t you holding your breath until Broadway makes a
musical from Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather chronicles? Can’t wait to see some faux Marlon Brando
dancing across the stage as Don Corleone? Then you might like what the easy
money hucksters on the Great White Way are doing to ‘A Bronx Tale.”
You’ve heard of it? A while back there was this little movie
called “A Bronx Tale” made by Robert De Niro and Chazz Palmentiri about a bus
driver trying to raise a family in a Bronx neighborhood run by the mob. The mobster is the local big shot, revered
and/or feared by the locals. A slick guy
with a smooth line and plenty of cash. Great movie.
Anyway, the bus driver has a young boy who is fascinated by “Sonny’s
(the mob boss) activities. He’s a cute
kid, Colagero is, and Sonny adopts him first as a kind of mascot and then as a
runner and soon the kid is making a little bit of money at the periphery of
this larger criminal enterprise. Meanwhile,
Colagero’s dad, a straight up hardworking type wants his son to grow up with
traditional values – hard work, honesty, the straight and narrow.
The Italian neighborhood factored heavily in the film but it
could have been any neighborhood group. In neighborhoods where
African-Americans are heavily concentrated, adolescents and even young kids
emulate former drug dealers covered with bling most of whom do not quit the
game to become rappers. Or maybe it
could be some young, adolescent admirers of Irish gangs like the Westies?
Anyway, the phenomenon is universal, but is this the stuff
of musical? The obvious argument for
making it so is West Side Story, but in spite of the plagiarized or parallel
universe of the 1950’s drama modeled loosely on the Puerto Rican ‘Capeman’
murders, this idea just does not work.
I didn’t see it. I’m not going to. Not unless they resurrect
Joey Ramone and put it to a soundtrack of his.
Can’t you hear it: “Twenty, twenty, twenty four hours to go, I
wanna’ be a bus driver. . .”
The public is tired
of remakes and sequels whose only purpose is to have a guaranteed audience
without risk to the bottom line. Why not create something new and original,
something that might replenish the artistic soul of the country?
I’m sure there are a lot of unknown talented people who have
written smart musicals and plays who need the money and attention more than
Robert De Niro. But even as I write, I have
heard a rumor that Broadway investment bankers are working on a rock opera
about the Neopolitan Camorrah.
There is a brilliant Italian TV series they can rip off for that one. It's called "Gomorrah" -- don't you love the poetry?
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