Twenty-five years after Vitello’s became part of a painful chapter in his family’s history, Noah Blake has returned to the restaurant to direct and star in a fictional murder mystery, describing the production as part of his healing journey.
The “Teen Witch” alum’s “A Killer Night in Studio City,” a noir-inspired immersive theater production set in 1958, opened at the famed Italian restaurant on Sept. 15.
“When I was first approached about this, of course, there was this little bit of … and then I was like, ‘Wait, what am I doing? Of course, I should do this,'” Blake told Fox News Digital. “This is a chance for me to, not rewrite history, but to create a new page and to create a new connection and a new relationship for me with this place, for my name with this place, for my family with this place.”
“I’ve got a four-year-old son,” Blake said. “I want him to be able to go there and enjoy Vitello’s as he’s grown up, God willing, as long as Vitello’s is there. And I don’t want him to ever feel funny. I want him to think about, ‘Oh, Vitello’s, that’s the place where daddy did that fun show.’ Not this other stuff. I’m not trying to minimize that tragedy, but it wasn’t my tragedy, and it was a cross that I’ve had to bear and still will probably for the rest of my life.”
Blake said Vitello’s was a regular gathering place for his family while he was growing up, but he stayed away for decades. He eventually returned and agreed to stage the production there, saying he wanted to reclaim positive memories of a place he had loved.
“I want to go and do something in this space that is creative, that is fun, that is exciting, where people come and laugh and gasp and have a great time,” he explained. “Some people may not even know [what happened] and the people who do might be curious and go, ‘Oh, that has nothing to do with anything, and I had a great time.'”
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The history Blake is trying to move beyond dates back to 2001, when his father Robert Blake’s wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, was killed after the couple had dinner at Vitello’s.
The actor was acquitted of murder in 2005 in connection with Bakley’s killing. Bakley was shot and killed while sitting in Robert’s car near the restaurant. A civil jury later found him liable for her death and ordered him to pay Bakley’s family $30 million, prompting him to file for bankruptcy, according to The Associated Press.
An appeals court later reduced the award to $15 million, after which the parties reached a confidential settlement. Robert died in 2023 at 89.
Rose Lenore, Bakley’s daughter with Robert, feels differently about the production. She told Fox News Digital that Vitello’s remains too painful for her and others who loved her mother.
“I think him doing it at Vitello’s is upsetting for me and anyone who loved Bonny,” she said. “And there were quite a few people who did. She left behind three children, plus me. She also left behind a sister, my aunt, who misses her dearly. And so, to have Robert Blake’s son do any show at Vitello’s, let alone a murder mystery show, I find that to be insensitive and upsetting.”
“I don’t even care what the show is about,” Lenore said. “I’m also not here to invalidate anyone’s healing journey, if that’s what this is for him. But I also think it’s my moral obligation to stand up for what I believe in. I would still be upset if he was doing anything else. And for Noah to be doing a happy, fun show — I think it’s in poor taste.”
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“I’m not wishing any harm on Noah,” Lenore continued. “I wish him well in his life and career. But it would be hard for me to stay silent on something like this. It would be hard for me to stay silent about my mother.”
Responding to Lenore’s criticism, Blake wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital, “I have my own deeply personal reasons for doing this play. Vitello’s was a place that I loved my entire life. Over time, that place became the physical embodiment for me of a much larger and devastating chapter of my life — one thing that I had nothing to do with, but whose consequences I have had to endure for years.”
“Choosing to walk back into that space now and create something uniquely mine — something lighthearted and entertaining that people are enjoying — is part of my own healing journey,” he wrote. “It’s about taking a place that had come to represent something painfully dark in my life and allowing it to represent something else. I’m not erasing history or rewriting it. I’m simply adding a new page to it, and I don’t ask or expect anyone else to sign off on what I need to do to heal.”
“Rose is absolutely entitled to her feelings,” Blake continued. “I’ve been there for her many times over the years, and I care for her. She chose to express her feelings about this publicly, which certainly wouldn’t have been my choice and still isn’t. I would much rather have had a private conversation with her. I’ve reached out and asked her to call me so that we could talk about this, and that conversation has yet to happen. But that door remains open for her.”
Blake said returning to Vitello’s has also forced him to revisit his complicated relationship with his late father.
“I don’t think people really realize when something like that happens, how many lives are impacted in such a profound way,” he explained. “I had to wrestle with who my father really was for everything I thought he was or knew or saw him as. Did he do this thing? Was he really capable of this? Was he that far gone? Was my father this monster?”
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“It’s tough because it makes you question a lot. ‘What is my genetic makeup?’ It was years of intense scrutiny, and it was impossible to live my life, and for other people as well. It’s not cool to know that this guy’s son had a nervous breakdown and couldn’t leave his house for six months and was having panic attacks and night sweats and was incapable of functioning.”
“There were moments my father could be a very loving, kind, decent, generous human being,” he said. “And there were times when he could just be an absolute f—ing monster and just the worst kind of selfish and menacing and threatening.”
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Before his death, Robert fiercely denied murdering Bakley.
For Blake, returning to the restaurant carries a meaning beyond the fictional story he says he wants to tell. While he recognizes the connection others may make to his family’s past, Blake stressed he does not want that history to define him.
“… I live my life as me,” he said.
