Dominic Chianese still has a lot of living to do. And he thinks Tony Soprano may too.
The 94-year-old actor best known for playing Uncle Junior on HBO’s mob hit “The Sopranos” is coming to Town Hall on June 30 where he plans to tell stories about his life so far and play folk songs. Chianese told the Daily News from England, where he’s spent the past eight years, that he workshopped material in London to suss out whether there’s an audience for such a performance.
“I did about seven shows to see if people are interested in stories, and they are,” he said.
The Bronx native’s show draws from the 25 years of stage work he did before landing a role in 1974’s “The Godfather Part II” and beyond. That included being reunited with “Godfather” star Al Pacino in 1979 to do Shakespeare’s “Richard III” at the Cort Theatre. While he remembers that experience fondly, Chianese has a clear favorite.
“‘Requiem for a Heavyweight’ with John Lithgow,” he stated convincingly. “That was my favorite — 1985.”
Chianese thanks lots of live theater work for making him a solid actor and said his best performances have happened on stage. But it was his role as crime family boss Corrado Soprano, better known as “Uncle Junior,” that made him a household name with a few dollars in his bank account.
“I didn’t really make any money until ‘Sopranos,’” he said. “It’s the best role I ever had and the most financially gratifying role I ever had.”
Eighteen years later and 3,400 miles from the gambling dens of New Jersey, he’s still known as Uncle June.
“I get recognized all the time,” Chianese said. “That’s gratifying because I like people.”
“The Sopranos” famously concluded with lead character Tony Soprano sitting at a diner where maybe he got whacked. Who knows? The 2013 death of James Gandolfini pretty much put to rest any possibility the beloved gangster series would someday be revived.
Like the rest of us, Chianese was stunned when the series’ final episode cut to black as a character who may or may not have been a hit man walked toward Tony.
“The way it ended he’s still alive,” Chianese said. “Nobody knows.”
Likewise, nobody including Chianese knows how and when his career will end either, but he hopes to wind up in New York City where it all began.
“I’d like to be in Manhattan because there’s a lot I’d like to do in my career,” he said. “I’m only 94.”
Being married to an English woman made life overseas alluring to Chianese. He’s been bouncing between the U.S. and England for more than 30 years and says it’s time to come home where he has family, and hopefully, more career opportunities. Someday performing at Radio City Music Halls tops his bucket list.
“When you go up on 6th Avenue and you see that big place with the Rockettes, that’s such a place. That would be nice wouldn’t it?” he beamed.
Chianese doesn’t see becoming a Rockette in his future. But his Town Hall show should give fans a taste of what he wants to do next. It draws from his work in film and television as well as his days as an emcee at Greenwich Village’s Gerde’s Folk City in the 1960s and ’70s. He estimates that he met 600 folk musicians during that period including an already famous Bob Dylan, whom he calls one of his favorite writers.
He also had the pleasure of introducing downtown music fans to a local duo named Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, who were fine-tuning a new song called “The Sound of Silence.”
Fans who come to hear Chianese tell stories and play tunes can expect him to perform songs by Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and “maybe” Leonard Cohen. They’ll also hear some Italian classics the Cuban anthem “Guantanamera” made famous by act including Pete Seeger, José Feliciano and The Sandpipers.
“That’s one of my favorites,” he said.
Chianese said music has been an important part of his development as an artist, which he hopes to prove when he hits the stage with a guitar in hand rather than the the mafioso scowl he wore on more than 50 episodes of “The Sopranos.”
“It’s a wonderful career and I want it to keep going,” he said.
Chianese said he has friends in New York keeping an eye out for available properties while he tries to figure out what to do with his place in England. He hopes people in his hometown will respond to his June 30 performance — and whatever follows— as well as fans have abroad. It’s his feeling New Yorkers may find his stories particularly relatable.
“They should want to know how a Bronx kid made it,” Chianese said.
