Observing Life: Pacino burst my Broadway bubble

Left Dh1,000 poorer, I learnt the hard way on my vacation in New York that even the presence of a celebrated award-winning Hollywood actor cannot save an uninspiring play on Broadway.

A holiday itinerary for New York is incomplete without the inclusion of a Broadway show. Being a performing arts writer, I’d probably be booed out of the stage community if I returned from my holiday in Manhattan with no ticket stub from one of the 40 theatres that line the flashy Broadway district to wave around.

The onerous task of narrowing down Broadway musicals or plays began long before I had booked tickets to the United States. Determining what to watch involved a vetting process, taking into consideration TripAdvisor reviews of long-running musicals, feedback from friends and Twitter and Facebook followers suggestions. The crowd-pullers have always been musicals such as The Lion King and Les Misérables. But then, in a moment of fangirl foolishness, I disregard all those recommendations and settled on splashing out a hefty Dh1,000 for China Doll, one of the highest priced plays on Broadway this season.

What's that and why, you ask? One name: Al Pacino. Seeing that tickets for just the preview performances of this play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet, which began on October 20, were almost sold out two months prior, makes it less embarrassing to admit that the major draw to this production was the ­Academy-, Emmy- and ­Tony-Award winning actor in the lead. Of course, there was box office evidence of the Al Pacino-­Mamet collaboration success with the revival of Glengarry Glen Ross in 2012. Who passes up an opportunity to see them recreate magic on stage?

Definitely not the hundreds who had queued up on the Broadway street outside ­Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre that night. According to reports, the play grossed about US $1.1 million (Dh4.03m) in the first six preview performances alone, a spectacularly high figure for a show that isn’t a ­musical.

China Doll, which officially opens this week, is about a wealthy old man who, on the eve of his retirement, buys a plane for his young fiancé and the legal mess that ­ensues.

About 10 minutes into the play, which surprisingly began on the dot at 8pm, the admiration bubble burst.

Al Pacino’s gruff voice was inaudible every time he paced around the stage. His jargon-laden monologues could have benefited from crisper writing. Perhaps then the actor could have focused on delivery rather than rely so heavily on teleprompters for lines. During the interval, a group of audience members had to discuss what transpired in the first act to collectively reach a conclusion on the storyline. The couple sitting next to me never returned for the second act, and I’m sure I heard someone snore during an excruciatingly long soliloquy, too. That’s your verdict right there. Walking out of the ­theatre, the general consensus was that even the presence of a celebrated actor could not redeem this uninspiring script.

How did I get over it? I had to remind myself of the legendary actor's scene in The Godfather where his character, Michael Corleone, meets with Sollozzo. It helped erase the bitter memories of the two hours that had passed.​