"Some shows open on Broadway with nothing on their minds but a joyous desire to send the audience out humming, smiling and feeling just plain terrific. Such a show is the polished, familiar but freshly refurbished chestnut 'A Bronx Tale'…In its present incarnation, with take-home tunes, a first-rate cast and lively choreography, it clicks like a new Rolex…On the whole, 'A Bronx Tale' is a pleasant surprise guaranteed to send you through the exit doors smiling."
Read more

"Good luck getting one of the many zesty, sticky numbers out of your head...It is impossible to experience 'A Bronx Tale without myriad other musicals popping into your head...'A Bronx Tale' is a wildly uneven show—some parts feel just ridiculous in the broadness of their strokes, others entirely charming. The greatest strength of the piece lies in its characterization of Sonny...Sonny, like this show, is a thinly veiled but incurable romantic."
Read more

"The streets revisited in this new production are paved with a heavy-handed and, in musical-theater terms, restrictive earnestness. There is humor and parental love, and a bit of romance; what’s missing is the even more essential element of joy...Palminteri’s book doesn’t dig into Sonny’s contradictions, and those who did catch the movie will anticipate the most clever and charming lines coming a mile away...Menken’s tunes don’t seduce as nimbly on a first listen as his best have."
Read more

"The characters are simple, the storytelling is derivative of better-known musicals and the tone is excessively sentimental and solemn. But 'A Bronx Tale' is nevertheless an entertaining crowd-pleaser and a poignant piece of theater...There is a heartwarming aura to the storytelling and a palpable sense of sadness lurking under the nostalgia...The staging is tight and high-powered. Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater have built a fresh and flavorful score."
Read more

"While there's much to enjoy, something feels lost in translation…De Niro's seasoned hand is all over the performances. Best of all: Richard H. Blake's Lorenzo and especially Nick Cordero's Sonny, possessing an irresistible mix of menace, street smarts and charisma!…Menken’s tunes–a terrific pastiche of ‘60’s sounds–are memorable...But you know what they say about too many cooks, and somehow the heart of the story ends up overpowered."
Read more

"When a property has been waxed to a commercial Broadway shine as this one has at the Longacre Theatre, it's hard to locate the cracks and crevices that originally gave it character. But when the rhythms and melodies of the story's milieu are fully engaged in painting the picture of this microcosm on Belmont Avenue, 'A Bronx Tale: The Musical' is completely captivating."
Read more

"What might have been a gut-punch melodrama ends up a half-hearted musical bildungsroman...Palminteri's book only roughs it in, and the often tuneful and literate songs don't dig deeply enough under the story's surface to reach the primal emotions underneath...Directors DeNiro and Zaks have delivered a brisk, efficient production, which, nevertheless, lacks the flavor of life...How is it that a show with murders, beatings, family secrets, and shocking betrayals, ultimately seems so weightless?"
Read more

"If you know you want a lot of liquidy doo-wop music, non-threatening fights and fake-looking Molotov cocktails, an aww-inducing love story, and two showy, starry central performances from Bobby Conte Thornton and Nick Cordero, then rest assured that's what you'll get, with nothing else getting in the way...Earworm wrangler Menken is in solid form here...But none of it causes your spine to tingle or your eyes to leak...There are far worse ways to burn off a couple of hours."
Read more