Los Angeles Times; January 29, 1998

Al Capone fit a lifetime of fame into less than a decade of running the mob in Chicago. Watching "King of the City", Robert Gallo's solo show about America's most famous crime lord, you realize how Capone remains the template for pop-culture gangsters--to the point that Capone's own life seems familiar.

Gallo alternates between direct address--for Capone's thoughts and asides--and telling Capone's life story through the device of a newspaper interview. The portrait that emerges is primarily sympathetic with undertones of admiration.

In a brief introduction, Gallo successfully sets the tone of the 1920s: the Great Depression hasn't hit, dance halls are full of flappers and swing bands, Lindbergh is flying across the Atlantic. Hanging over this can-do country, however, are the thou-shall-not laws of Prohibition. So people like Capone were making a fortune selling liquor.

After that, though, the timeline falls apart. Pre-Chicago flashbacks--answers to the reporter's questions--are easily distinguished. But where later events fall in relation to the interview remains murky. This is particularly frustrating since Capone's fall so closely parallels the end of the Roaring '20s: He was convicted of tax evasion in 1931 and sent off to prison for eight years. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt the next year meant Prohibition's days were numbered.

Also problematic are the number of secondary characters who remain thinner than cardboard cut-outs. Clearly the audience is meant to rely on the brief bios of Dion O'Bannion, Lucky Luciano and Bugs Moran.

Gallo certainly looks as movies have taught us a gangster should look: Sicilian coloring, black hair, harsh face, thick eyebrows. (Capone, whose parents came from Naples, looked oddly like Bob Hope.) At times, Gallo is every ounce the Capone you expect after seeing "Little Caesar" and "Scarface".

But as co-writer, Gallo wants Capone to be likable--too likable. He's clever, never crass. The script is punctuated with clever one-liners such as, "The American way: If the system doesn't work for you, work the system," and "Jesus Christ himself made water into wine--does that make him a bootlegger"? He protests that the St. Valentine's Day massacre wasn't his idea.

Gallo wrote the play and then developed it with Juanin Clay, a familiar name in Valley theater circles. Clay directed theater in the area until shortly before her death in 1995, and the Valley Theatre League now gives a lifetime achievement award named after her.

Clay is, however, still the credited director for "King of the City". She undoubtedly had a great influence on the show when it was first developed in 1991-92. But now, six years later, "King of the City" seems a little lost, a little out of focus, something a new director might have prevented.

The audiocassette used for the sound effects sounded six years old as well, with tape hiss too loud to ignore during critical scenes. While the sound design was effective in concept, it was undermined by the loud clicks of the tape deck in the booth and the audible whir of the slide projector--distractions exacerbated by the fact that the theater is in the flight path of Burbank Airport.

Gallo and Clay also left out one interesting detail about Capone: He died of complications from syphilis in 1947. That certainly would have colored his comments about keeping his prostitutes healthy, not to mention his "decision " to play crazy after his release from prison.

In the end, Gallo's Capone seems to want to be a hero--not an anti-hero, his more traditional role. As he leaves the stage, he rhetorically asks what were the best times, then mimes playing with his son. Capone, misunderstood family man? Hard to swallow.

"King of the City: An Evening With Al Capone", at Bitter Truth and Sweet Lies Theatre, 11050 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 21. $ 10. (818) 755-7900. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

Los Angeles Times; March 20, 1992.

Review by: Michael Arkush

Nobody can ever leave Al Capone alone. Eliot Ness pursued him in "The Untouchables", and Geraldo opened his vault on national television. Now, 45 years after America's most famous gangster died, actor-writer Robert Gallo has resurrected Capone again in "King of the City", a one-man play at the Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood.

Gallo promises to unveil a different Capone. The public perceives Capone as a ruthless murderer who terrorized Chicago. Who can forget the scene in 1987's "The Untouchables", when Capone, portrayed by Robert De Niro, killed one of his henchmen with a baseball bat?

But Gallo, 46, of North Hollywood said Capone was a cultured, sophisticated man who was generous to his family and friends. During the Depression, he added, Capone fed thousands of poor people in soup kitchens. He courted politicians and police with grace unimaginable for someone in his profession.

"I felt people should see the other side of the gangster," Gallo said. "People should see the loving father. He was just the product of his times, the wide-open 1920s. Like Ruth and Valentino, he was larger than life."

The play, however, focuses mostly on Capone's prime -- the late 1920s -- with brief detours into his childhood and later years in prison. Gallo talks directly to the audience, and stages conversations with gang members and family. He also demonstrates Capone's reputation as a womanizer by constantly trying to seduce a woman reporter.

Juanin Clay, the play's director, said the misconceptions about Capone exist because "it's easier to believe in a certain formula than to deal with the complexities of a person." Clay said the public even helped create Capone. "Here is someone who was the result of our fascination, our need for what he had to give," she said. "He gave us pleasure. The chilly thing is that you can understand why he made the decisions he made. We want to make the audience charmed and then horrified."

At first, Gallo was just curious. In 1985, he played Capone in "Vespers Eve", which appeared at the Cast Theatre in Hollywood. Over the years, Gallo couldn't get Capone out of his head. He pored through clips from the Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune and The New York Times. He found the man behind the myth, and was shocked. "Everyone said he was a murderer, but he was never convicted," Gallo said.

According to Gallo, both the government, which for years had protected Capone from prosecution, and the public turned against the mobster after the highly publicized St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929 when his subordinates, dressed as policemen, killed rival gang members. But among the victims was an innocent bystander, an eye doctor, and that fueled the public outcry.

"After that, the government began to put together a case against him," Gallo said. "If the doctor hadn't been there, it would have just been gangsters against gangsters, and there probably wouldn't have been an effort to put him in jail."

The government never linked Capone to the murder, but did convict him of tax evasion in 1931. He spent nearly seven years in prison, becoming the first celebrity prisoner to serve time on Alcatraz Island. He died a virtual recluse in Florida in 1947.

Gallo is now starring in the Group Repertory's production "The Only Thing", and has appeared on television in "Cheers" and "Hunter". The Capone play is the first major piece he's written. Clay, a veteran actress, has appeared in "WarGames" and "The Legend of the Lone Ranger". This marks her directing debut.

"King of the City" starring Robert Gallo, is playing indefinitely at the Group Repertory Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. Show time is 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Tickets: $ 10. Call (818) 769-PLAY.