A Bronx Tale on Broadway - Straz Center Tampa

On Tuesday night, my husband Gabe and I went to see A Bronx Tale on Broadway at Straz Center in Tampa. It was a much needed date night out as I've been dealing with some health things that I will write about soon - along both of us being crazy busy at work. Having National Broadway shows less than 30 minutes from us is one of the things we love most about living in Tampa Bay.

A few of my co-workers raved about A Bronx Tale so we were excited to see it. Especially being it's called "Jersey Boys meets West Side Story". The second the show began, Gabe looked over at me and said "this is the intro of Jersey Boys" (we've seen Jersey Boys twice on Broadway).

Something I didn't realize ahead of seeing the show was that there was a movie adapted from the original play. A Bronx Tale was written in 1989 and during the original Off Broadway, Robert De Niro came to see the show, he took it to the big screen in 1993, where he starred in and directed the movie. A Bronx Tale was his film directorial debut and he is now the Director of this Broadway hit.

The musical takes place in the 60's, when everything was in the Bronx was all about Joe DiMaggio and Babe Ruth. A Bronx Tale story is about a young boy named Calogero (also known as C), who gets taken under the wing by Sonny, the neighborhood mob boss.

The story follows C as he grows up to be a teenager, having to choose the life he wanted, between his straight-arrow father he loves and the mob boss he’d love to be. The story took a Westside Story twist when he fell for his African-American classmate, Jane. A Bronx Tale is an unforgettable story of loyalty and family.

Academy Award® winner Robert De Niro and Tony® winner Jerry Zaks direct this streetwise musical – based on Academy Award nominee Chazz Palminteri’s story that The New York Times hails as “A Critics’ Pick! The kind of tale that makes you laugh and cry.”

A Bronx Tale will be in Tampa through this Sunday, February 2nd. Click here for tickets!