The Broadway version of A Bronx Tale opened on December 1, 2016, following a one-man show, a film directed by Robert De Niro in 1993, then an Off-Broadway version of the story of the world of organized crime in the Bronx in the 1960s. Written by Chazz Palminteri, the Broadway musical is directed by Robert De Niro and Tony Award-winner Jerry Zaks, with designs by a Tony-winning quartet: sets by Beowulf Boritt, costumes by William Ivey Long, lighting by Howell Binkley, and sound by Gareth Owen.
When the show opened at The Papermill Playhouse last February, Charles Isherwood in The New York Times noted: “On a stylish set by Beowulf Boritt, featuring fire escapes and stoops silhouetted against blood-red vistas of the neighborhood, the action moves at a brisk, almost cinematic clip.”
Now on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre, Isherwood still likes the sets: “Even the sleek and simple sets, by Beowulf Boritt, featuring period fire escapes and storefronts, are light on their feet, sliding into place and reassembling almost in time to the music.”
And as Marilyn Stasio says in Variety: “From the opening image, there’s no doubt we’re on the rough side of the Bronx in 1960. Howell Binkley’s spectacular lighting design throws a pulsing red glow across the starkly beautiful but precariously stacked levels of wrought-iron fire escapes designed by Beowulf Boritt in the manner of the great Louis Sullivan.”
Boritt talks about his set designs for A Bronx Tale on The Broadway Channel in the video below.