McNeal, the new play by Ayad Akhtar, is heading to Broadway this fall and we now know the complete cast.
Joining the previously announced casting of Academy Award-winner Robert Downey Jr. as Jacob McNeal are Brittany Bellizeare, Rafi Gavron, Melora Hardin, Andrea Martin, Ruthie Ann Miles, and Saisha Talwar.
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. Additionally, AGBO, Anthony and Joe Russo’s independent studio, together with Robert Downey Jr., is unveiling a highly realistic Metahuman Digital Likeness of the actor that will be utilized within the production of McNeal. This fall at Lincoln Center Theater, audiences can expect a fusion of technology and theater, featuring Robert Downey Jr. in a new, innovative form.
Good writers borrow, great writers steal. Jacob McNeal (Robert Downey Jr.) 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.
Directed by Bartlett Sher, McNeal will begin previews Thursday, September 5, and open on Monday, September 30 with a strictly limited engagement through Sunday, November 24 only at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Tickets are now on sale.