Family Men

In a culture lacking traditional steps toward adulthood, it's up to each person to define his own coming of age. Of course, some coming-of-age experiences are naturally more interesting than others — and then there’s Chazz Palminteri's A Bronx Tale, which is off the charts. "It's the story of a young kid who witnesses a murder in front of his house," explains Denver Center Attractions’ Genevieve Miller. "He chooses not to tell the police, which earns the favor of a local Mafia boss who takes him under his wing."

Set in the early ’60s, when the Mafia still reigned supreme, blue-collar working men had jobs and civil rights divided the country, Palminteri's one-man show outlines the tumultuous early life of Calogero (or C) and offers a captivating look at the collision of the American past and the American future, following C as he navigates the changing world with the help of his honest, family-oriented bus-driver father and his adopted father figure, Sonny, a local Mafia boss. "He learns a lot from both of them," says Miller. "It's really this ninety-minute, non-stop tour de force of Palminteri's young character choosing between these two very different worlds."

A Bronx Tale opens June 9 at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, in the Denver Performing Arts Center, and runs through June 21. Tickets start at $20; for more information, call 303-893-4100 or go to www.denvercenter.org.
Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 & 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Starts: June 9. Continues through June 21, 2009