Robert Downey Jr., who earlier this yr gained an Academy Award, will make his Broadway debut this fall in “McNeal,” a brand new drama by the Pulitzer-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar.
The play is a few gifted novelist with a tough household life and a doubtlessly problematic curiosity in synthetic intelligence. Downey will play the author.
The manufacturing is being staged by Lincoln Heart Theater, considered one of 4 nonprofits with Broadway homes, at its Vivian Beaumont Theater. Previews are to start Sept. 5, and the opening is scheduled for Sept. 30.
“McNeal” will probably be directed by Bartlett Sher, a resident director at Lincoln Heart Theater and a Tony winner for “South Pacific.”
Downey, 59, has been a prolific and enormously profitable movie actor, overcoming vital challenges (he had an extended battle with substance abuse and served time in jail on drug costs). He has constructed a profession that has been profitable (he starred as Iron Man in a number of Marvel motion pictures) and acclaimed (he gained the Oscar for greatest supporting actor for a broadly praised efficiency as Lewis Strauss, a authorities official, in “Oppenheimer”).
His stage expertise is restricted — his one Off Broadway credit score, “American Ardour,” opened and closed on the identical date in 1983 — and he mentioned in an announcement, “It’s been 40 years since I used to be final on ‘the boards,’ however hopefully I’ll knock the mud off fast.”
Akhtar is a playwright and a novelist with an urge for food for complicated and thorny topics whose earlier performs have explored finance and Islam. He has had an extended relationship with Lincoln Heart Theater, which first produced his Pulitzer-winning play, “Disgraced,” on its Off Off Broadway stage, and likewise offered his performs “The Who & The What” Off Off Broadway and “Junk” on Broadway.
Akhtar can also be engaged on a musical: He is among the e-book writers for a stage adaptation of the movie “La La Land” that’s now in growth.
