Chazz Palminteri’s ‘A Bronx Tale’ at The Suffolk

The Suffolk presents “A Bronx Tale: The One Man Show Starring Chazz Palminteri” on Thursday, August 29, at 8 p.m.

Bronx-born and raised Chazz Palminteri wrote “A Bronx Tale” in 1988. The powerful one-man stage play depicted his bruising childhood which included witnessing a gangland killing when he was nine years old. Palminteri played 18 characters and brought them all to life in his autobiographical play. His friends, enemies and family came alive on stage.

After Palminteri premiered the one-man play in Los Angeles in 1989, he famously refused increasing sums of money to sell the story rights to all the major film studios, who wanted to put a star in the role of Sonny and have someone else write the screenplay. Palminteri was adamant that he wanted to write and star in it himself. Despite only having $200 in the bank, holding out proved to be the right decision, because two weeks after he turned down a $1 million offer, Robert De Niro showed up to see his play.

“I didn’t know he was there,” Palminteri recalled. “At the end, he said, ‘You should play Sonny and you should write it. It’s your life. If you shake my hand, that’s the way it will be.’ I made the right decision. A great director can make a great script a classic, and that’s what Bob did.”

Palminteri went on to write the screenplay for the film “A Bronx Tale” and then most recently wrote the book for the Broadway musical. It was the first time in history that the same actor wrote the one-man play, the movie and the Broadway musical and starred in each one.

In the past 35 years, Palminteri has appeared in over 60 films, including “The Usual Suspects,” “Analyze This,” “Mulholland Falls,” and “Bullets Over Broadway,” for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. He has starred in over 20 television series and has won three Emmys. He has been seen most in “Modern Family,” “Godfather of Harlem,” “Law & Order” and “Gravesend.”

Tickets for “A Bronx Tale” are $89 to $115 at thesuffolk.org. The Suffolk is at 118 East Main Street in Riverhead.