I've gotten eye contact from Adam Pascal, the one time I sat close enough in AIDA to still be in his range of sight. I had met him before the show, so maybe that's why, or maybe it was just coincidence. During his smaller stuff, too, like a Joe's Pub, but the place is so tiny that it's not really anything too special. When I saw him do Cabaret, my best friend and I got a gesture/shoutout at curtain call - we were cheering kind of loudly.
The one time I remember it being most affective was when I saw The Normal Heart. I think I remember there being an interview or something where Raúl said the theatre was small enough that he could make eye contact with every single person in the theatre, and that he made a point to do so. He's got those big, beautiful piercing eyes, and if he could manage to look into the audience at the right times, it really got to you. He managed to creep me out quite a bit, in a really neat way.
A work of art is an invitation to love.