Kevin Spacey’s Songs & Stories performance, on Wednesday night in Tel Aviv, didn’t try to ignore the Hollywood star’s fall from grace over the last eight years since the first of the sexual assault allegations against him were raised.
During a show that was essentially just what was advertised - songs and stories - the 66-year-old Oscar winner repeatedly alluded to his past and how he felt ostracized and abandoned due to an unnamed reason he never quite says.
Still, he put on a show to highlight his story beyond the headlines with a storyline that focused on where he came from, where he learned his craft, and other accomplishments he’s had throughout his career.
His performance got off to an awkward start when an audience member accosted him for a selfie as he headed to the stage. “Don’t ever fuck up an entrance like that ever again,” he said, trying to be funny, but his annoyance seeped through.
Considering his forte is acting, Spacey is a decent singer and entertainer, even delving into tap dancing. He dedicated songs by Frank Sinatra, Simon and Garfunkel and other well-known singers to specific people; his mother for supporting his art, his high school acting teacher, former classmate and fellow actor Val Kilmer, his Jewish manager Evan Lowenstein who connected him to Israel, and Evan’s daughter who took a leave of absence from her US university to enlist in the IDF as a lone soldier.
His renditions of “Fly Me to the Moon” and Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” were sweet, and the songs were interspersed with anecdotes and audience participation.
He invited one woman to come on stage and sing along with him, and at another point brought up his manager’s wife to publicly give her a present he had signed by Rob Lowe, an actor she reportedly loved. I’m not sure what message he was trying to send other than, “I’m a pretty good guy, don’t you think?”
He spoke of touring in Eugene O’Neill’s play Long Day’s Journey into Night, where he performed at the Habima Theatre in Tel Aviv in 1986, and he displayed photos of himself when he was younger at the Kotel.
Kevin Spacey emphasizes his love for Israel
Perhaps in an attempt to ingratiate himself with the audience, he emphasized how much he loved Israel and its people. That was evident, but not stated at the show, by his reported decision, according to media reports, to choose performing here over a show in Greece, after being given an ultimatum by the Greeks to choose one or the other.
The underlying theme of the show, and one that he referred to once, is that sometimes people need and want second chances, suggesting that he was seeking redemption through his return to performing.
There were some empty seats in the mostly-filled room, and I am fairly certain that at 31, I was one of the youngest in the audience. I wonder if it was a generational difference; are people my parents' age able to look past his blunders and enjoy who he was pre-scandal? Are young people choosing not to attend because they aren’t interested, or are they taking a social stand, or maybe they just didn’t know who he was since he’s been off both the big and small screens for so long?
Whatever the reason for the older crowd, they seemed to leave happy to give Spacey that second chance he was hoping for.