Robert Downey Jr. to Make Broadway Debut in New Ayad Akhtar Play

Bartlett Sher will direct the drama for Lincoln Center Theater.

Robert Downey Jr.

Academy Award winner Robert Downey Jr. will make his Broadway debut in the new Ayad Akhtar play McNeal, directed by Bartlett Sher. The Lincoln Center Theater production will run September 5-November 24 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

Downey Jr. will play Jacob McNeal, a “perpetual candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature,” who has an estranged son, a new novel, old axes to grind, and an “unhealthy fascination with Artificial Intelligence.”

McNeal will have sets by Michael Yeargan and Jake Barton, costumes by Jennifer Moeller, lighting by Donald Holder, sound by Justin Ellington and Beth Lake, and projections by Jake Barton.  Jennifer Rae Moore will be the stage manager.

Complete casting will be announced at a later date.