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Prince of Broadway: 4 of 5 stars

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Sentinel Staff Writer

Shot on a shoestring but written and acted with wit and heart, Prince of Broadway is a Kramer vs. Kramer set in the world of “Hey lady, wanna deal on a Gucci purse?” -- the foreign-born street hustlers of Manhattan.

Lucky (Prince Adu) is from Ghana. His boss, Levon (Karren Karagulian) is Lebanese. Lucky’s job is to work the streets, find tourists and other bargain shoppers and lure them to Levon’s store, to the back room where he can sell them “Coach, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, very nice” knock-offs.

Then his former girlfriend dumps a boy she claims is his son on him “for two weeks.” He doesn’t know the toddler’s name, has no clue about how to care for him, and is plenty steamed about it.

“I don’t look like you, you don’t look like me,” he protests to the pre-verbal babe. He’s sure the kid isn’t his. His current girlfriend (Keyali Mayaga) suggests a paternity test. But how can he do the work and keep a kid and make the money to pay for that?Meanwhile, Levon’s Green Card marriage to a club-hopping trollop who spends his money is winding down. Maybe that’s what makes him sympathetic to Lucky’s plight, allowing the guy to bring the kid to work.

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Sean Baker’s Prince of Broadway is alternately sweet and hilarious as it shows a guy who makes up parenting on the fly, in between suckering tourists.

Screening at: 2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 28, Regal; 6:30 p.m Tuesday, March 31, Regal.

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