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IT’S A BADA-BOOM

Life imitating art cut a little too close to home for former “Sopranos” star Michael Imperioli.

A homemade pipe bomb exploded early yesterday outside a West Side theater owned by the actor and his wife, blasting a hole in the windshield of a parked vehicle in front of the building, police said. No one was hurt.

The rudimentary explosive – fashioned from a 2-by-4-inch galvanized pipe, black powder and a fuse – went off outside Imperioli’s Studio Dante at 257 W. 29th St. at around 1 a.m., cops said.

While the bomb packed enough punch to seriously injure anyone who might have been walking by, it merely shot through the windshield of a parked 1992 burgundy Chevy Astrovan, setting off car alarms and waking neighbors.

“I heard a very loud explosion,” said Debbie Zalesne, who lives next door. “It’s scary.”

Police patrolling nearby heard the explosion, rushed to the scene and evacuated six tenants in the building above the theater.

Arson and Explosion Squad investigators searched garbage cans and basements to make sure there weren’t other bombs.

Imperioli and wife Victoria were called and arrived at the 68-seat theater at around 3 a.m., where they were questioned by detectives for several hours.

The actor – who played Tony Soprano’s troubled nephew, Christopher Moltisanti, on the popular HBO mob drama that ended its long run this year – told investigators he had no idea who could have been responsible.

“I just don’t know what it is,” Imperioli told The Post. “I have no idea. I wish I knew what it was. We have the greatest police force in the world. I’m sure they’ll come up with something.

“This whole day felt like a hallucination – a bad dream. It’s just so surreal. It’s terrible. I feel awful.”

Earlier, Imperioli told the cops that whoever had rented the building from the landlord before him had been unhappy at being booted, sources said. But police said they questioned that man and he is not a suspect.

There were no witnesses, and investigators believe the explosion was intended to send a message rather than injure anyone, sources said.

But police did not rule out that the intended target may have been someone else in the building and were questioning the other tenants and employees of the theater. They also were canvassing surveillance tapes from buildings in the area.

Flavio Souza, a 51-year-old bridge painter whose car was damaged, said he couldn’t imagine he was the target.

“When they said to me it was a bomb I said, ‘It wasn’t me.’ I have no problems with nobody. It’s strange, very strange,” he said.

Imperioli and his wife opened the theater in 2003 and have produced several neo-realist dramas there, including “Cyclone,” “Chicken” and “Dark Yellow.”

Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Leonardo Blair

murray.weiss@nypost.com