I love Robert Downey, Jr. He's one of my favorite actors; I try to see everything he does. But this show, McNeal, is just a major disappointment. I didn't like it, I didn't understand it, and I was just plain bored for much of it. I’m guessing many in the audience left before the show was over.
This is the tale of man melding with machine ("Frankenstein," anyone?). Jacob McNeal, an acclaimed writer, has achieved his life-long dream of winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. But how much has he actually written, and how much of his gift is due to his reliance on AI? He seems to do a lot of dictating to the device (AI, write me King Lear in the style of Jacob McNeal) This conundrum isn't the worst of his problems. Jacob is a major-league alcoholic. He's been warned that if he doesn't stop drinking immediately, he's going to die. He says he doesn't care, and that's certainly the way he acts.
A total puzzle is why all the women he knows find him so damned attractive. He's rude, misogynistic, and totally self-involved. Did these attributes lead to his wife committing suicide? His disgruntled son, Harlan (Rafi Gavron), seems convinced of it. These two men loathe each other, although Jacob wishes it were otherwise.
The women in the cast are excellent, especially Andrea Martin, who seems incapable of making a wrong step onstage, ever. In fact, the entire cast deserves a better show.
Incidentally, my companion found Ayad Akhtar's play fascinating, and the AI bits completely timely. So, there you have it. Theater, like horse racing, is strictly a matter of taste.
