Drama unfolds between Vegas, Broadway

By Jerry Fink

Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007 | 7:27 a.m.

There's too much drama off stage for Trent Othick, a Las Vegas film producer who is making his Broadway debut.

He's trying to bring Chazz Palminteri's "A Bronx Tale" to the Walter Kerr Theatre. Previews are to start tonight , and the play is scheduled to run Oct. 25 through Feb. 3 .

But a possible lockout of stagehands could drop the curtain on the Great White Way's fall season. The contract between the League of American Theaters and Producers and Local One, the stagehands union, expired in July. No negotiations are scheduled after today, according to Daily Variety.

"It couldn't be worse timing for us," said Othick, president of Las Vegas-based GO Productions, noting that advance ticket sales have been brisk for the one-man play. "Any potential lockout or strike could affect our play more drastically than others because we're so close to opening and also we have a limited run."

"A Bronx Tale" launched Palminteri in the '80s. He wrote it and played all 18 roles off Broadway and in Los Angeles before it was turned into a movie in 1993 starring Palminteri and Robert De Niro, who was making his directorial debut.

"When I made the deal for the movie 'A Bronx Tale' and closed the play, I thought a lot of people wouldn't get a chance to see it," Palminteri said from New York City during a break in rehearsals. "I closed the show while it was doing great, but I just wanted to do movies and make some money at the time."

He went on to appear in more than three dozen films, including "Bullets Over Broadway," "The Usual Suspects" and "Poolhall Junkies." The movies brought Palminteri to Las Vegas this summer to film "Yonkers Joe" for GO Productions, owned by brothers Trent and Matt Othick and John Gaughan, son of casino owner Michael Gaughan. That connection led to fulfilling one of Palminteri's dreams - to take his career-making play to Broadway.

Palminteri explained how the Broadway run came together so quickly.

"These things usually take a year, two years or longer to put together," he said. "I have three films in the can that will be coming out and I didn't have any other projects, and I told Trent and Matt and John about the play and I'd like to do it on Broadway. Trent looked at me and said, 'OK, we'll do it.'

"You've got to get the right director and the right actor - and he's got to be available. You've got to get the theater. Everything fell together in six weeks. The director (four-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks) was available. I was available. The theater was available. Trent put up the money and it happened."

Palminteri persuaded Othick to take another look at Broadway.

"I was very skeptical about doing something on Broadway," said Othick, a graduate of Bishop Gorman High School. "I have heard the horror stories."

But he and his partners liked the project.

"I thought if we're ever going to do Broadway, this is the project for our company," Othick said. " 'Yonkers Joe' was such a lovefest . We took such a liking to Chazz. He was fun to be around. He was a great storyteller, and we're a sucker for a good story. He would entertain us for hours. We're all big fans."

Othick's only experience with Broadway was through his wife's stepmother, Marilu Henner, who went on to star in a number of Broadway productions after starring in the TV series "Taxi."

"I got to see the behind the scenes on Broadway," he said. "I got a feel for what it was all about. I have always felt a connection."

But his first loves were television and films. He produced several low-budget movies and worked as an assistant director on several TV series, including "The X Files."

Othick said they tried to prepare for all eventualities on Broadway, but they couldn't prepare for everything.

"As an independent film producer I am constantly pleading with the unions that their rates are not fair and balanced to lower-budget productions," Othick said. "I think the unions' argument is that films are making more money these days, as are Broadway plays. But what they and their members often fail to realize is that the numbers they are looking at in the big picture are driven by a couple of studio films that gross a half a billion dollars or a handful of hit Broadway musicals that gross seven figures a week. They don't take into account that the majority of films and Broadway plays lose money, so the smaller films and plays are the ones that pay the price by having to hire workers you may not need or pay rates you just can't afford to pay, even though most of the time their members are willing to work for lower wages to get the opportunity to work on a good project with good people.

"So it creates a bit of drama that is not healthy to the overall work environment in the arts."