Robert Downey Jr. to make his Broadway debut: 'Hopefully I'll knock the dust off'
Fresh from his everything-winning run for "Oppenheimer," Robert Downey Jr. is headed to Broadway.
Downey will produce and make his Broadway debut in "McNeal," a new drama from Pulitzer winner Ayad Akhtar that will be helmed by Lincoln Center Theater resident director Bartlett Sher, the Tony winner whose 2018 adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird" became the bestselling American play in Broadway history.
Downey will play Jacob McNeal, "a great writer, one of our greatest, a perpetual candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature," according to the announcement. "But McNeal also has an estranged son, a new novel, old axes to grind and an unhealthy fascination with Artificial Intelligence."
Lincoln Center calls Akhtar's new play "a startling and wickedly smart examination of the inescapable humanity – and increasing inhumanity – of the stories we tell."
In his post about the news on Instagram Tuesday, Downey wrote, "I knew I wanted to do Ayad's new play before I was done reading it, then hearing Bart would be directing at the Beaumont theater sealed the deal."
"It's been 40 years since I was last on 'the boards,' but hopefully I'll knock the dust off quick," he continued. "'MCNEAL' is a timely and important story about the future of creatives, and I intend to do it justice."
The play will be staged at the Vivian Beaumont Theater starting September 5, officially opening September 30 for a strictly limited engagement through November 24.
The venue isn't technically located in the city's Theater District, but is considered to be part of Broadway.
Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
