Ayad Akhtar ’02 and Robert Downey Jr. Tackle AI in Broadway’s ‘McNeal’

By
Andrew Scott
October 25, 2024

Film alum and Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar ’02 is tackling big questions with a big star in his new play McNeal on Broadway. 

Playing the titular character in his Broadway debut is Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr., fresh off his Academy Award win for last year’s Oppenheimer.  

The play follows Jacob McNeal, a world-renowned writer whose growing obsession with Artificial Intelligence threatens to consume his personal and professional life. Tony-winner Bartlett Sher directs.

McNeal marks Akhtar’s fourth collaboration with Lincoln Center Theater, and his second production to be staged at their Vivian Beaumont Theater, following his Tony-nominated Junk in 2017. He won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 2013 play, Disgraced

Downey Jr. may have more literally faced off with AI in 2015’s superhero blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron, but audiences expecting a common condemnation of the tech may be surprised by Akhtar’s new play.

“He’s one of the few writers I know whose position on AI can’t be reduced to the (understandable) plea For God’s sake, stop threatening my existence!” offered Jeffrey Goldberg in a feature for The Atlantic.

Writing for the New York Stage Review, Roma Torre called the play “phenomenally prescient,” noting that while it raises questions about authorship and AI, it’s “hard to believe that anything artificial intelligence could come up with would be as wholly rewarding and profound.”

The stars came out in heavy support for the play’s debut, with attendees including Matt Damon, Paul Rudd, and Steven Spielberg.

“It’s such a great piece of writing,” said Downey Jr. on opening night.  “I think it’s improved our outlook on the brightness of the future. I think us creatives are still necessary.”

Akhtar was equally excited at the event, “It was mind blowing to see the things I’d written on the page suddenly come into vivid, vivid life,” he said. “It was amazing.”

The play runs from September 30 through November 24. Tickets are available here.