Once again, HBO topped itself with the premiere of Angels in America at the Ziegfeld Theater. Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic drama was gloriously transported from stage to screen under Mike Nichols’ genius direction of a stunning cast that included Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeffrey Wright, and Al Pacino (terror-inspiring as gay power attorney and AIDS victim Roy Cohn).

In the mix were Ellen Barkin, Anna Deavere Smith, Jennifer Grey, F. Murray Abraham, John Ventimiglia, Kristin Davis, Aidan Quinn, Larry Kramer, Stanley Tucci, Rob Morrow, Marsha Mason, Candace Bushnell, Lorne Michaels, Diane Sawyer, Gena Rowlands, Carole Kane, and George C. Wolfe.

The star-studded crowd met up later to celebrate at Cipriani 42nd Street where an air of glamour held a spotlight on Pacino’s appearance. Looking a little less than groomed, and sporting a mangy beard and hair stretched into a tight, tiny pony tail, he divulged that—No, he wasn’t trying to bring fashion nightmare “grunge” back from the grave. Rather, he was assiduously preparing for his upcoming appearance in the $30 mil film version of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, in which he’ll be fixed up to play “Shylock” opposite Joseph Fiennes and Jeremy Irons.