The Star (formally Star City Casino) continues to push the celebrity angle, fresh off Leonardo DiCaprio enjoying his digs on site, and even welcoming Stevie Wonder on stage a couple of weeks ago.
Tonight the long awaited 'An Evening With 'Al Pacino' show hit an appreciative and near capacity Lyric Theatre audience.
Pacino aka 'Scarface' (Tony Montana) and 'The Godfather' (Michael Corleone) grasped the crowd from the get go, and kept them for most of the 2 hour performance. Pacino received a standing ovation from his loyal fans and you could tell immediately that the actor was there to give it his all.
Well known Australian media personality Ray Martin moderated / interviewed, which I think added to the overall show.
Cutting away to the big screen at Pacino's instruction to show some of his favourite and most powerful acting work was a nice touch and no doubt gave us Aussies the opportunity to see some snippets from some of his films that were never released in Australia. I also enjoyed hearing about what he calls his "experimental films" and it seems like Pacino is interested in getting into producing since he's funded so many of his personal projects largely by himself (despite a young Steven Spielberg warning him against that sort of thing back in the 70s and 80s.)
My favorite part of the evening was the Question and Answer session. I counted not one but three oddball type questions from the audience. If you do the math about 20% of the question were pretty strange, but maybe that is just a reflection of different kinds of people in society. As they say, it takes all kinds.
The show was a thumbs up, however I felt that the first half of the show was more entertaining and I enjoyed his Hollywood angles and stories... especially his Marlon Brando "secrets" and The Actors Studio stories were wonderful.
The last half of the show was a bit too clever and arthouse for me, however I appreciate that many of the audience members are hardcore Pacino fans and almost worship the ground he stands on.
The show is back at The Lyric Theatre tomorrow, in what is quite likely the last time Australian audiences will have the opportunity to experience Pacino close up here.
Thanks for being so giving of yourself Al, and we hope to see you back on the big screen soon.
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