Magic Hands Freddy

Tickets and Information

There's a lot to be said for the effect on a play of an audience falling in love with the main character or with the actor playing him. Or with both. In Arje Shaw's Magic Hands Freddy Michael Rispoli -- who plays the title character -- makes himself seem absolutely inseparable from the role. It's the best sort of performing imaginable, not acting but ineffable being.

A chunky, medium-height man with a round, mobile face and big arms, Rispoli (whom some ticket-buyers will recognize from The Sopranos) lets emotions flicker on his face like images on a screen. He hides nothing, he forces nothing -- everything he does is strikingly believable. And because he's required by director Rebecca Ta[...]