Acclaimed novelist Jacob McNeal, an unlikeable, narcissistic liar, cheat, and mentally unstable substance abuser, who dismisses his personal transgressions, professional plagiarism, and lack of ethics with a self-obsessed attitude, sarcastic comments, a total lack of responsibility for his misdeeds, and talk of being ready for his life to end, has recently become engrossed in the technology of artificial intelligence. He not only asks his digital device who will win the Nobel Prize he’s been nominated for this year, but also downloads a variety of appropriated source materials for a new book he’s creating with the use of AI, to tell a story that is not his to tell. Robert Downey Jr. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. Set in the near future, McNeal, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar, directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher, and playing a limited Broadway engagement at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, combines musings about the increasing infringement of AI on our lives and culture with the decline in our ability to distinguish truth from storytelling, honesty from duplicity, actuality from hallucinatory visions, and what’s real from virtual reality. The overarching theme is underscored in projections by Jake Barton and a digital composite by AGBO, enhanced with preternatural lighting by Donald Holder and sound by Justin Ellington and Beth Lake, that drive home the point and will leave you fooled and stunned. In his Broadway debut, Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr. stars as McNeal and embodies his snarky demeanor, self-destructive behavior, and insufferably egomaniacal personality, in explosive conflicts and angry confrontations with his doctor Sahra Grewal (played by Ruthie Ann Miles), who’s never read his books and whose urgent medical advice he ignores; his estranged son Harlan (portrayed by Rafi Gavron), who exchanges threats with him about familial secrets they’ve uncovered but can’t reveal; his feisty agent Stephie Banic (Andrea Martin), who’s as pushy and driven as he is; her infatuated young assistant Dipti (Saisha Talwar), too easily seduced by his swagger; the probing reporter Natasha Brathwaite (Brittany Bellizeare), who interviews him for the New York Times, challenges his unchecked political incorrectness, but somehow is also swayed by his self-absorbed bravado; and his ex-lover Francine Blake (Melora Hardin), who calls him out for abandoning her. Unfortunately, all are written as familiar stereotypes in recognizable costumes by Jennifer Moeller, with one-dimensional plot points that rarely penetrate the surface of the clichéd characters and contribute little to the central theme of the danger of AI to our ethics and humanity, merely comparing it to literary inspirations and adaptations by the greatest writers of the past. Robert Downey Jr. and cast. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. More convincing than the lack of development of the unsympathetic stock characters is the scenic design by Michael Yeargan and Jake Barton, with a back wall projection screen, a looming monumental cell phone in cool tones, and the contrast between the warm palette of Stephie’s colorful book-filled office with the surreal scene of McNeal in a park with the others behind him, and the final visual shocker that speaks louder than the playwright’s words (over which AI here triumphs). Running Time: Approximately one hour and 40 minutes, without intermission. McNeal plays through Sunday, November 24, 2024, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, 150 West 65th Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $241-371, including fees), go online. You can watch a video montage of the show below: