Touring ‘A Bronx Tale’ a crowd-pleasing, color-by-number musical

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

 

Advertising for “A Bronx Tale” claims that the show is “‘Jersey Boys’ meets ‘West Side Story’.” 

 

The implication is that the show shares these mega-musicals’ status in addition to their time period (late-1950s/early-1960s), terrain (a tough Italian-American neighborhood in New York/New Jersey) and temperament (romanticized realism, where hoodlums harmonize).  But, mostly, it calls attention to “A Bronx Tale’s” astounding lack of originality. 

 

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