Theater | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: This musical could have been “one of the great ones,” but a predictable plotline and a lackluster soundtrack hold A Bronx Tale back from being as good as one would expect a touring Broadway show of its caliber to be. There is, however, a silver lining: There are plenty of great moments, which are just good enough to make purchasing a ticket worthwhile.
2 comments:
I have never watched the movie but I have heard great things about the movie. It is interesting that it being done as a musical which is on tour and more interesting to see how that plays out on stage and if it has the same effect that it did have as a movie. It would also be interesting to find out how someone who has watched the movie (and is not a professional critic) would react to the musical. Lately, there has been a huge amount of revivals being done be it in film, tv and on stage and some things are better left untouched as it was of a better value in it is original state. This can also be said of plays being transformed into movies or movies being transformed into plays. Some of them are successfully done and to those I give credit where it is due.
A lackluster soundtrack? I went to see the show at the Benedum Center last week, but I cannot agree with that. One of the indices I use to rate a musical soundtrack is whether there is any lyric or rhythm stuck in my head on the way home. A Bronx Tale definitely had the rhythm, and I liked it. However, I agree that the plotline was predictable and quite cliché. I was surprised how they officially used “Jersey Boys meets West Side Story” -amNewYork as the advertisement. It sounds like self-degradation to me to explain the show as a combination of existing shows. Nevertheless, I liked A Bronx Tale more than Jersey Boys or West Side Story! The characters were illustrated humanely, therefore it allowed an easy induction of empathy. The direction of set and lighting was entertaining, as the writer says. Moreover, it was a new experience for me to watch a show, including gun shots (not the old long-range rifles but the modern handy ones) in the States. Even though I knew that it is fake in my head, I still feel strong fear when I hear the noise in this country.
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