It’s a good news, bad news year for Robert Downey Jr.
The former “Iron Man” won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar this year for “Oppenheimer.” It was a moment that capped an unusual career that took him from jail to making millions with Marvel Pictures. His “Oppenheimer” turn was flawless.
Now he’s come to Broadway for the first time, on stage in a new play called “McNeal” at Lincoln Center. The run sold out fast, and the anticipation was high.
Alas, the reviews last night were dismal. Downey is described as charming, but the play is just a vehicle for a star to get on stage. Ten major outlets panned it, a few were so-so. There was one positive note from a minor outlet.
“McNeal” is about an author who uses AI to write a hit novel from his dead wife’s papers. The New York Post said it was like the Glenn Close movie, “The Wife,” but instead called “The WiFi.” Clever.
The NY Times said: “Timely but turgid, it rarely rises to drama; in a neat recapitulation of current fears about technology, its humans, hardly credible as such, have been almost entirely replaced by ideas.”
It’s a closed run, and making more than a million bucks a week, so Lincoln Center doesn’t care if Downey is reading the phone book. But the play will drift in the abyss when it closes. It won’t transfer to a real Broadway theater, and no awards are coming. Downey will have had his year in the finer arts, and return to Marvel with new credentials.
LCT must have anticipated the fall out. They had a closed opening night party and few celebs in the audience, although Steven Spielberg brought his family. Let’s hope he’s not making “The WiFi” into a film.
