Robert Downey Jr. to make Broadway debut in new play McNeal… 41 years after starring in a musical that opened and closed the same night

Robert Downey Jr. proudly announced that he will make his Broadway debut in Pulitzer Prize-winning Ayad Akhtar’s new play McNeal, produced by Lincoln Center Theater.

‘I knew I wanted to play Ayad’s new piece before I finished reading and listening [Tony winner Bartlett Sher] would direct at the Beaumont Theater, sealed the deal,” the 59-year-old Oscar winner – who has 113.3 million social media followers – said wrote on Tuesday.

‘It’s been forty years since I last stood on ‘the boards’, but hopefully I can dust it off soon. McNeal is a timely and important story about the future of creatives, and I intend to do it justice.”

Robert accepts the titular role of fictional writer and “perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature” Jacob McNeal, who struggles with “an estranged son, a new novel, old axes to grind, and an unhealthy fascination with AI.”

‘McNeal is a surprising and incredibly smart investigation into the inescapable humanity – and increasing inhumanity – of the stories we tell.’

Previews for the strictly limited performance begin on September 5 and run from September 30 to November 24 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

The rest of the cast will be announced at a later date, but general admission tickets officially go on sale May 21 at noon ET.

Downey Jr. is also executive producer of McNeal along with his wife of 18 years – Susan Levin Downey – who co-founded their production company Team Downey a decade ago.

I hope it goes better than former Brat Packer’s previous play, Patricia Birch’s off-Broadway musical American Passion, which opened and closed on the same evening – July 10, 1983 – (after 42 previews) at the Joyce Theater in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.

Robert is currently an executive producer and stars as four different characters in Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar’s seven-episode spy thriller The Sympathizer, airing Sunday on Max.

Each of Downey Jr.’s antagonistic characters. reportedly represents a different branch of the American establishment.

Cowboy Bebop star Hoa Xuande plays the main character: a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his resulting exile in the United States.

The small-screen adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel also stars Sandra Oh, Kieu Chinh, Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen, Hoa Xuande, Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Vy Le and Alan Trong.

The 59-year-old Oscar winner wrote on Tuesday: ‘I knew I wanted to play Ayad’s new play before I finished reading and hearing it. [Tony winner Bartlett Sher] would direct at the Beaumont theater sealed the deal’

Robert continued: ‘It’s been forty years since I last hit the stage, but hopefully I’ll dust it off soon. McNeal is a timely and important story about the future of creatives, and I intend to do it justice’ (photo April 13)

Downey Jr. takes on the titular role of fictional writer and “perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature” Jacob McNeal who struggles with “an estranged son, a new novel, old axes to grind, and an unhealthy fascination with AI”

Previews for the strictly limited performance begin September 5 and run from September 30 to November 24 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (pictured April 23) in Manhattan

The former Brat Packer also serves as executive producer of McNeal along with his wife of 18 years – Susan Levin Downey (L) – who co-founded their production company Team Downey a decade ago.

I hope it does better than Robert’s earlier play, Patricia Birch’s off-Broadway musical American Passion, which opened and closed on the same night – July 10, 1983 – (after 42 previews) at the Joyce Theater in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood

Downey Jr. is currently an executive producer and stars as four different characters in Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar’s seven-episode spy thriller The Sympathizer, airing Sunday on Max.