Meet the Masterminds Behind MCNEAL

Almost 20 years after making his Lincoln Center Theater (and Broadway) debut with The Light in the Piazza, Bartlett Sher is back this season alongside another heavy-hitter of the theatre world, Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar. The play is McNeal and previews are already underway at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.

Led by Robert Downey Jr. in his Broadway debut, the play focuses on a writer with "an unhealthy fascination with Artificial Intelligence," though much of the story is being kept underwraps.

How did Akhtar come about to write it? "Just having your ears open to the times and what's going on and the way that conversations about creativity and technology have been happening more and more in the way that people are afraid of or hopeful about those things," explained Akhtar. "And it just got me thinking about a novelist who is at the end of his career, and maybe his life, and the legacy and his interest in the new technology.

"[Playwriting] is a mysterious process [Laughs] but I will say was that it was pretty amazing this one... a lot of a lot of things came together unexpectedly and it kind of poured out of me."

Akhtar and Sher collaborate for the first time with this project, though Akhtar also has a history with LCT- his play Junk ran there in 2017.

"I was drawn to the writing. [Ayad] has an exceptional skill, great depth of density of scenes," said Sher. "The human experience at the center of the play and the expression seemed to me like this is only something you can see in the theater. And it's such great writing. And that was the fun part. Now, you add on top of that other challenges, which are technological, and 'How are we going to do this?' and all that stuff. And that's a fun part of it. But without that central muscle, that's riding at the center, there's no work to be done. And this kind of gives us the opportunity to do all of that."

The man at centerstage is Robert Downey Jr., who both have nothing but words of praise to share.

"[Robert] is an extraordinary artist," said Sher. "I think the thing that you learn the most when you're around the greatest possible artists is that they're the most free, willing to take the biggest risks, willing to take the largest experiments with the greatest sense of spirit in them. And that's the part that he brings with every day, brings with him every day. And the sort of joy and fearlessness in that is what makes every day so special."

"[I can] summarize what he said with the word 'generosity'. He's so generous. And it's an amazing example every day to come to work and be with that," added Akhtar.

Sher's career has existed almost exclsuively with Lincoln Center Theatre, which celebrates its 40th season this year. All but three of his 15 Broadway projects (The Bridges of Madison County, Fiddler on the Roof, and Pictures from Home) have been produced there.

"Lincoln Center is a very, very extraordinary place. It's really the center of making theater in New York and certainly in the U.S," said Sher. "And it's a big year for Andre Bishop's final season, so we're really excited about that. And I think it's especially great to have Ayad opening the season for us because it's one of our greatest writers and that's what we should be doing in Lincoln Center."

What do they hope audiences take away? "I have an answer that I can speak and one that I can't," joked Akhtar. "I hope that they will be moved and I hope that they will take away some things that they feel they can't not wrestle with. And I hope they feel compelled to keep thinking about it and to keep feeling about it."

"I think audiences will be surprised and elevated and challenged by all the conversations. And not necessarily walking out like, 'Oh, wasn't that fun?' That's not the issue," added Sher. "The issue is that they've been brought to think and live inside of questions with other human beings in the same room without their cell phone on, although there's a big cell phone on in front of them called the stage. But it's pretty fun. That's the deepest kind of celebratory human experience you can have... like we're all sitting on the hillside in Delphi watching a great play."

McNeal will play a strictly limited engagement through Sunday, November 24, 2024 only at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

Photo Credit: Chasi Annexy