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• One man fashions "A Bronx Tale"

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Chazz Palminteri in "A Bronx Tale." (Joan Marcus)

Chazz Palminteri is not exactly a household name, but in 1989 he wrote a powerful personal memoir about growing up in the 1960s called A Bronx Tale. The play is now in a limited run regional revival after a recent Broadway run and it’s not a production one should miss. Conceived and performed as a one-man show, the play details the coming of age of a young Italian-American boy named Calogero Anello, or “C”, as he is known, and the significant influences of two important father figures in his life. One is his own father, Lorenzo, who was a simple working stiff, a city bus driver and the other, a neighborhood wise guy named Sonny.

While the episodic narrative mostly is centered on the conflicting forces of good and evil in young C’s life, what’s makes this play so fascinating is how one actor brings the dozens of characters alive with simple vocal variations and numerous hand, arm and body gestures to suggest numerous neighborhood personalities. Palminteri’s incredible vocal mimickery and humor capture the incredible range of urban and ethnic types so well you feel the many characters’ presence, even though only one actor remains on stage for the play’s 100 minute running time. The sustained energy of Palminteri’s performance is truly remarkable.

What begins with a simple incident of the young C’s witnessing and covering for Sonny’s shooting a local thug becomes a detail of a lifelong friendship and affection for the hard wisdom of a successful criminal. C’s memories detail a myriad of rich recollections, from neighborhood crap games, homemade foods, gang fights, first dates, racial conflicts and a parade of local characters: JoJo the Whale, Phil the Peddler, Carmine, Frankie, Eddie Mush among other hilarious inhabitants of the E 187th St and Belmont Ave hood.

And though some may remember this story’s adaptation into a film by Robert DeNiro in 1993, which co-starred Palminteri as Sonny, nothing in that film version approaches the sheer vibrant energy and emotion of seeing Palminteri’s stage antics.

This fabulously touching and often hilarious production of "A Bronx Tale," directed by Broadway veteran Jerry Zaks, continues at Chicago’s Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre, in the heart of the Loop’s Theatre district, at 24 W. Randolph St. until March 22. Call for ticket information at (312)977-1700 or go online at www.BroadwayinChicago.com.