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Robert Downey Jr. to make his Broadway debut: 'Hopefully I'll knock the dust off'

The actor will appear in a play called "McNeal."

Robert Downey Jr. to make his Broadway debut: 'Hopefully I'll knock the dust off'
Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images
May 7, 2024, 4:10 PM

Fresh from his everything-winning run for "Oppenheimer," Robert Downey Jr. is headed to Broadway.

Downey will produce and make his Broadway debut in "McNeal," a new drama from Pulitzer winner Ayad Akhtar that will be helmed by Lincoln Center Theater resident director Bartlett Sher, the Tony winner whose 2018 adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird" became the bestselling American play in Broadway history.

Robert Downey Jr. arrives at the Tenth Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on April 13, 2024.
Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images

Downey will play Jacob McNeal, "a great writer, one of our greatest, a perpetual candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature," according to the announcement. "But McNeal also has an estranged son, a new novel, old axes to grind and an unhealthy fascination with Artificial Intelligence."

Lincoln Center calls Akhtar's new play "a startling and wickedly smart examination of the inescapable humanity – and increasing inhumanity – of the stories we tell."

In his post about the news on Instagram Tuesday, Downey wrote, "I knew I wanted to do Ayad's new play before I was done reading it, then hearing Bart would be directing at the Beaumont theater sealed the deal."

"It's been 40 years since I was last on 'the boards,' but hopefully I'll knock the dust off quick," he continued. "'MCNEAL' is a timely and important story about the future of creatives, and I intend to do it justice."

The play will be staged at the Vivian Beaumont Theater starting September 5, officially opening September 30 for a strictly limited engagement through November 24.

The venue isn't technically located in the city's Theater District, but is considered to be part of Broadway.

Additional casting will be announced at a later date.