According to the New York Post, Al Pacino’s new Broadway play China Doll has devolved into a “disaster,” as the veteran actor struggles to remember his lines, despite having access to multiple teleprompters.
Sources close the play’s star tell The Post‘s Michael Riedel that Pacino, 75, is so “despondent” he spends time after shows sitting in his dressing room “totally lost,” as he struggles with remembering lines to the David Mamet production.
Another source told Riedel that Mamet bolted to California after viewing just two dress rehearsals and the first preview of China Doll, so Pacino has been left to his own devices.
According to The Post, Pacino spends his performances ignoring co-stars and staring at teleprompters, which have been blended into the set, with two behind columns on either side of the stage and a third behind a couch.
Riedel also writes Pacino is spending a great deal of time on a laptop computer reading lines.
Additionally, some of Pacino’s lines are coming to him via a Bluetooth headset, and he has reportedly been heard barking profanities at the show’s director, Pam MacKinnon.
MacKinnon has been left to wander around nervously as a result of the tension, and some members of preview audiences have asked for refunds by intermission.
Riedel concludes the show to be a “f - - king disaster.”
China Doll officially opens on Nov. 19.