text: “A Bronx Tale the Musical” gets off with a bang as a mobster’s bullet is pumped into a shlub’s head.
  
  If only this whole show was as killer.
  
  Doo-wop and 1960s pop form the musical language of this diverting but indistinct show co-directed by Robert De Niro and longtime Broadway pro Jerry Zaks.
  
  Chazz Palminteri’s book is a carbon copy of his 1989 solo play that became a ’93 movie directed by and starring De Niro.
  
  The autobiographical saga is set a half-century ago in the Bronx, where the author — called Calogero — was taken under the wing of Sonny (a charismatic Nick Cordero), a dazzling and deadly wise guy, much to the chagrin of the boy’s loving, hard-working father Lorenzo (a sweetly sincere Richard H. Blake).
  
  Puppy love between Calogero (Jason Gotay) and Jane (Coco Jones), a black girl from the other side of town, adds drama to the show’s overly abrupt and jerky second act.
  
  Songs by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater, who did “Sister Act” together, are easy on the ears. While there are crowd-pleasing tunes including “I Like It,” which is sung by a 9-year-old Calogero (the big-voiced Joshua Colley) and one earwig (“One of the Great Ones,” a catchy tune about love) the show lacks breakout numbers that would make it really special or memorable.
  
  Perhaps unavoidably, “A Bronx Tale” conjures other musicals, including “Jersey Boys,” “West Side Story” and, thanks to a dice-throwing number “Guys and Dolls.” As a result, a show about a hometown teenager finding himself lacks its own identity. That’s exacerbated by the fact that like the one-man play, the musical leans heavily on Calogero telling his story directly to the audience. It makes the show feels like a retread, not something freshly re-imagined.
  
  Direction by De Niro and Zaks is hit and miss. On the plus side, Sonny’s henchman, guys with colorful names like obese JoJo the Whale and acne-scarred Frankie Coffeecake (the extreme makeup will put you off this particular pastry for a long time), are introduced with a flash, as if they’re posing for mug shots.
  
  During their romantic duet “Out of Your Head,” Gotay and Jones turn away from each other to sing to the audience when they should only have eyes for each other.
  
  Fans of either the play, the movie or both are apt to find “A Bronx Tale the Musical” entertaining. But as far as being one of the great ones? The musical still has work to do.
summary: Robert De Niro and Jerry Zaks direct Chazz Palminteri's “A Bronx Tale the Musical."