Robert Downey, Jr. in MCNEAL Marks His Broadway Debut in a Muddled Play

The new one-act play MCNEAL by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Ayad Akhtar ("Disgraced")is playing at the Lincoln Center Theater and marks Robert Downey, Jr.'s Broadway debut. Downey plays the lead role as Jacob McNeal, an acclaimed novelist who is on the cusp of receiving the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature. Though the play is fictitious, Akhtar has alluded to the play as being semi-autobiographical. This might infer Akhtar's own personal dilemma posed by the temptations to access A/I in his writings. The reckoning between A/I and the arts lends itself to a heady topic worth investigating. We're first directed to believe this is the play's intent. However, the play shifts focus to become a character study of an irritating and exhaustive writer. McNeal is an amalgamation of stereotypical attributes associated with brilliant but troubled writers. He's an alcoholic, intellectual snob, narcissist and shameless flirt. He's a failed husband and father, and a bombastic blowhard who can't get out of his own way.  McNeal ignores his Dr.'s dire warning to stop drinking or be dead within the year. He receives the Nobel Prize only to give a bombastic acceptance speech that attacks the institution. He sabotages his interview with the NYTimes by insulting the reporter and claiming to admire Harvey Weintraub but somehow charms her into writing a flattering piece. There's scenes that feel shocking but extemporaneous. One scene involves his estranged son and the reveal of an incestuous relationship. There's a melodramatic account of speaking to the skull of his wife who committed suicide after the bones were washed up in a tempest. McNeal also meets with the woman he had an affair with during his marriage whose relationship he wrote about without her consent. And, there's the effervescent, unflappable agent (Andrea Martin) who remains steadfast by him with a ready pot of coffee. All told, the play is confusing, disjointed and dreary. It's a tedious mess that can't find its way. Perhaps, Akhtar wrote this play utilizing A/I to amass storylines from classics, (i.e. Hamlet, Oedipus) and character traits of a self-absorbed, self-destructive writers (Hemingway, Chandler).  Maybe what Akhtar hints at all along is that A/I can amass and emulate other writers but in doing so, the result fails to have cohesive meaning, Artistic Integrity or Any Interest. And, In Addition, I'm sure Akhtar aspires to win a Nobel Prize.