Melora Hardin, Brittany Bellizeare Join Robert Downey Jr. in MCNEAL

Lincoln Center Theater has revealed the complete cast for its production of McNEAL, a new play by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Bartlett Sher. McNEAL will begin previews Thursday, September 5, and open on Monday, September 30.  The first Broadway production of LCT’s 40th Anniversary season, McNEAL will play a strictly limited engagement through Sunday, November 24 only at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.
 
The cast will feature Academy Award-winner Robert Downey Jr., Brittany Bellizeare, Rafi Gavron, Melora Hardin, Andrea Martin, Ruthie Ann Miles, and Saisha Talwar.
 
Good writers borrow, great writers steal. Jacob McNeal (Robert Downey Jr.) is a great writer, one of our greatest, a perpetual candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. 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.
 
McNEAL will have sets by Michael Yeargan & Jake Barton, costumes by Jennifer Moeller, lighting by Donald Holder, sound by Justin Ellington & Beth Lake, and projections by Jake Barton.  Jennifer Rae Moore will be the stage manager. McNEAL is produced by Lincoln Center Theater in association with Team Downey.
 
AGBO, Anthony and Joe Russo’s independent studio, together with Robert Downey Jr., is unveiling a highly realistic Metahuman Digital Likeness of the actor that will be utilized within the production of McNEAL.  This fall at Lincoln Center Theater, audiences can expect a fusion of technology and theater, featuring Robert Downey Jr. in a new, innovative form.