Robert Downey Jr. is making big moves! Not long after claiming his first Academy Award for Oppenheimer, and making his return to the small screen with HBO’s The Sympathizer, he’s bringing his talents to a different stage.
The actor, 59, announced on Tuesday that he will be making his Broadway debut this fall for a limited run of the play McNeal.
He will play the title role of Jacob McNeal, heralding the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar, to be directed by Bartlett Sher.
The play will be produced in association with Team Downey, the entertainment company run by Robert and his wife Susan Downey, and will debut at the Lincoln Center Theater. Previews begin on September 5, and will open on September 30, concluding on November 24.
The Marvel star shared the big news on social media, excitedly writing: “I am making my Broadway debut in the new play MCNEAL at Lincoln Center Theater!”
“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. MCNEAL is a timely and important story about the future of creatives, and I intend to do it justice.”
The actor was last on stage in 1983 for a production of American Passion at the Joyce Theatre in NYC, Off-Broadway, which closed as quickly as it opened, and his fans were enthusiastic to see him make his splashy stage debut.
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They left responses to his announcement like: “I had to run my eyes to make sure I was reading correctly! This Theatre Geek will be there! Been waiting for years for you to do this,” and: “I don’t have the slightest clue what the play is about, but consider my tickets bought,” plus: “You do ALL characters and storylines justice.”
© Getty ImagesPer Deadline, the synopsis for the play reads: “Good writers borrow, great writers steal. Jacob McNeal is a great writer, one of our greatest, a perpetual candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.”
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“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.”
© Getty ImagesTeam Downey is currently also in the midst of producing the upcoming crime thriller film Play Dirty, which has Mark Wahlberg and LaKeith Stanfield attached to the lead roles. Robert, at one point, was set to star in the film before settling into an executive producer role.
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He is currently continuing appearances in The Sympathizer, based on the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen in which the actor plays four different characters, all antagonistic, requiring him to transform drastically.
© Getty ImagesThe series premiered on April 14 to general acclaim, with three more episodes left to air before the miniseries concludes on May 26. Team Downey is helming production on The Sympathizer as well.
