"It doesn’t break ground or dazzle with an unusual recipe, but it delivers reliable pleasures with polished professionalism and infectious energy...If there’s a secret ingredient that gives the musical version a zest, it is the wonderful score...Certainly not without its formulaic or sentimental aspects. Few mainstream musicals are. But it captures both the milieu it evokes and the colorful characters who populate it with a buoyancy and humor that ultimately won me over."
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"There goes the neighborhood. Just when it was getting cool to go to a Broadway musical, along comes the lumbering and hackneyed 'A Bronx Tale'...A musically unmemorable mix of sappiness and contrived melodrama...Aside from Machiavelli-quoting mobster Bobby—played with expertly calibrated swagger by Nick Cordero—none of the characters command interest, and Alan Menken and Glenn Slater’s doo-wop–heavy score is far too lightweight for a plot that features murders."
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"For all the craft and polish applied, this musical winds up right in the middle of the wrong place. It’s an unmoving target...Nothing rings true...The songs are all as professional and tuneful as you would expect from the team of Menken and Slater...They do perfectly well what songs are supposed to do in standard commercial musicals...But in doing so they normalize material that should not be normalized...That’s a shame; the musical is handsome and reasonably well performed."
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"It takes everything that was good about 'A Bronx Tale' and waters it down until it’s as tasteless as a fast-food milkshake...Not only does Mr. Thornton’s relentlessly tautological first-person narration tell you what you just saw and are about to see, but so do Glenn Slater’s flat lyrics, which start out unpromisingly and get no better. Alan Menken’s music is Disneyfied doo-wop with some ersatz Sinatra thrown in, the stuff TV commercials are made of."
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"Generously plumped with ingredients from older, better shows, an easy-going familiarity suffuses 'A Bronx Tale,' along with the comforting glaze of nostalgia. They don’t make ’em like they yoozta (try as they might)...Astutely staged by Zaks and, OK, De Niro, 'A Bronx Tale' unfolds briskly...As to the score, like the story itself, it’s instantly forgettable. Every line and every rhyme comes roaring down the straightaway from a mile off."
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"The show’s makers and shapers haven’t squandered their gifts. But they haven’t dug especially deep in the imagination department, either. 'A Bronx Tale' packs some tasty ear candy and fine performances, but it’s as conventional as it gets and could use a surprise or two...While the story unfolds strictly by the numbers, songs by Glenn Slater and Alan Menken lend periodic lifts. Menken is an ace at crafting Zelig-like melodies that evoke a period. Doo-wop and ‘60s pop loom large."
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"Credit director Jerry Zaks (and co-director Robert De Niro) with terrific casting...Let’s face it, this ill-advised musical version, with an anemic score by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater, isn’t going to send ’em dancing up the aisles. While there are fun things to be found, like those jailbait Doo-Wop Guys singing and snapping a cappella under the streetlight, the music is soggier than overcooked meatballs and the lyrics have absolutely no bite...Sergio Trujillo’s choreography is a snooze."
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"Because it resembles an urban fairy tale, Palminteri’s story works even better as a musical than it has in its earlier incarnations where its stereotypical aspects felt more glaring...'A Bronx Tale'—in the second half, packed with a succession of melodramatic incidents—can feel rushed and unconvincing...While the score doesn’t feature any breakout songs, it is tuneful and fun...Though hardly sophisticated entertainment, 'A Bronx Tale' has genuine charms."
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