ILLUSTRATION RUSSELL MOORCROFT
In the Bada Bing, they’d have called it a ‘sit-down’ —a term used by Mob-land mercenaries to describe rare meetings between formidable figures from the Mafia landscape. Meetings where people could say what needed to be said, and say it with gusto. Like when Johnny Sack assembled the families, pleading for permission to whack Ralph Cifaretto. Or when Tony Blundetto killed Phil Leotardo’s brother, Billy, putting the DiMeo and Lupertazzi crime families on the brink of war. Or when a certain duck-loving, therapy-attending gangster survived an assassination attempt by his own uncle, and carnage beckoned…
Today’s virtual sit-down, however, is different. When four of the principle players from what many regard to be the greatest TV show of all time, The Sopranos, arrive at their meet-up —a reunion brokered by Empire to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary —there are no beefs to be resolved. Quite the opposite, in fact. Carmela Soprano herself, Edie Falco, greets Lorraine Bracco (Dr Melfi) with a smile bigger than Paulie Walnuts’ kill list. And when the series’ legendary creator David Chase arrives, Steven Van Zandt —Silvio Dante in the show —salutes his capo with a cheer deeply out of keeping with the nonchalant mobster he once played.