Robert Downey Jr. will make his his Broadway debut in the lead role of McNeal, the new play by Ayad Akhtar, author of the Tony-nominated Junk and the Pulitzer-winner Disgraced.
Downey will play the title character Jacob McNeal in the production staged by Lincoln Center Theater and directed by Bartlett Sher (To Kill A Mockingbird).
McNeal will begin previews Thursday, September 5, and open on Monday, September 30, at LCT’s Vivian Beaumont Theater. The production will play a strictly limited engagement through Sunday, November 24.
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Complete casting will be announced at a later date.
The official synopsis: “Good writers borrow, great writers steal. Jacob McNeal is a great writer, one of our greatest, a perpetual candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. But McNeal also has an estranged son, a new novel, old axes to grind and an unhealthy fascination with Artificial Intelligence. Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar’s new play is a startling and wickedly smart examination of the inescapable humanity – and increasing inhumanity – of the stories we tell.”
McNeal will have sets by Michael Yeargan & Jake Barton, costumes by Jennifer Moeller, lighting by Donald Holder, sound by Justin Ellington & Beth Lake, and projections by Jake Barton. McNeal is produced by Lincoln Center Theater in association with Team Downey.
Downey, of course, is the Academy Award-winning actor (Oppenheimer) whose film credits include Iron Man, Tropic Thunder and Chaplin, among many others. McNeal will mark his first time on Broadway.
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