Las Vegas Weekly

October 8, 2009 · 7:49 AM

Photo Gallery: Palminteri’s A Bronx Tale debut a triumph

By Robin Leach

Vanessa Minnillo and Chazz Palminteri at Lavo in the Palazzo.

Photo: Robyn Andrzejczak/ImagesofVegas.com

It’s an overwhelming achievement! Beyond brilliant and quite extraordinary. Broadway actor and movie star Chazz Palminteri walks and talks his way through an 85-minute, one-man performance, taking on the roles of wise guy mobsters and hustlers in his amazing tour de force A Bronx Tale.

No wonder the entire audience last night at The Venetian that included Marilu Henner, Vanessa Minnillo, Mike Tyson, Gary Payton and Chuck Zito was on its feet for a lengthy standing ovation. Vanessa and Marilu were the first to congratulate Chazz on his amazing performance.

After a near 40-year career as an actor, last night was the Las Vegas debut for Chazz. He wrote his humorous and sensitive memoir that became a film directed by and co-starring Robert De Niro. It’s Chazz’s true-life, coming of age story, starting when he was just 9 and witnessing a fatal shooting in a fight over a parking space while growing up in the rough, gang-controlled streets of the Bronx in the 1960s.

Chazz, who was nominated for an Oscar for Bullets Over Broadway, plays all 18 characters, including his father and the Sicilian gangster who befriended him, and moments after the curtain came down as he arrived at the premiere party at nearby Lavo in the Palazzo, he told me: “It was great. All these years, it was my dream to play Vegas, and it finally came true. It felt really good. There wasn’t one flub, one hiccup, one hitch. It was as smooth as sliding over ice.”

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com

Marilu Henner at Lavo in the Palazzo.

Everybody attending was unanimous with praise, agreeing that they’d just witnessed a masterpiece of theatrical work right on our famed Strip. It was an incredible experience to witness one man speak nonstop for 85 minutes and hold the engrossed audience so riveted that there wasn’t a cough or a cell phone ringing. This was fascinating storytelling of true-life characters that even I remember from my early days arriving in America and living in Manhattan back then.

Click HERE for our one-on-one interview with Chazz when he arrived in Las Vegas for the platinum production. Chazz is here with his limited run until Oct. 18, which wraps his two-year road tour with the compelling play.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com

Gary Payton and his wife Monique at Lavo in the Palazzo.

Chazz summed it up best: “It’s a story you will never forget, and I love telling that story every night.”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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