Howard Miller takes a look at McNeal at the Vivian Beaumont Theater:
McNeal, Ayad Akhtar's new play opening tonight at Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont, is, to quote the King of Siam in The King and I, "a puzzlement."
To be sure, there are many individual moments in which Robert Downey Jr. (making his Broadway debut) and the rest of the game and talented cast manage to grab our attention for entire disjointed scenes. But on the whole, McNeal comes across as a scattering of ideas that suggest that what we are watching is a mash-up of rough drafts of two very different plays. And neither the playwright nor director Bartlett Sher seems to have been able to help us fully grasp either of the two, except in general terms. |
