Robert Downey Jr To Make His Broadway Debut With New Play McNeal

Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr, who recently won an Oscar for his performance in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, is now all set to make his Broadway debut. The actor will be seen in a new play titled McNeal, written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar. Akhtar won the prize for his play Disgraced. He has also been involved in shows including The Who & the What and Junk at Lincoln Center. Downey Jr will play the titular author in the play, which is being staged by Broadway giant Lincoln Center Theater at its Vivian Beaumont Theater.

More about McNeal

Directed by Bartlett Sher, McNeal is described as a "startling and wickedly smart examination of the inescapable humanity – and increasing inhumanity – of the stories we tell", according to a press release by Lincoln Center Theater.

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Good writers borrow, great writers steal. Jacob McNeal (Downey Jr) is a great writer, one of our greatest, and 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," the official synopsis read.

Robert Downey Jr turns producer for McNeal

Downey Jr will also produce the stage show through his banner Team Downey in collaboration with Lincoln Center Theater. Michael Yeargan and Jake Barton's sets, Jennifer Moeller's costumes, Donald Holder's lighting, Justin Ellington & Beth Lake's sound, and Jake Barton's projections will all be featured in McNeal.

McNeal will begin previews on September 5 and will play a strictly limited engagement from September 30 to November 24. The actor, also known globally for playing superhero Iron Man in multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies, currently stars in the HBO miniseries The Sympathizer, an adaptation of author Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title.