“McNeal,” by Pulitzer-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar and starring Robert Downey Jr., is a high-gloss mess that strands the audience in the weeds.

Mr. Downey portrays the novelist Jacob McNeal, who early in the play wins the big brass ring of literature, the Nobel Prize. McNeal is a problematic man, an alcoholic estranged from his son, who ...

In fact, McNeal, played with halting vocal rhythms by Downey but hardly with the level of vulnerability of which this gifted actor is capable, is such a jerk that you sit there hoping AI will take ...

“McNeal” marks Downey’s first Broadway outing, following a short-lived run in the 1983 off-Broadway musical “American Passion.” While most celebrities of his stature choose time-tested ...

Though McNeal comes to embrace A.I. wholeheartedly by the final act, after writing the play, Akhtar remains more ambivalent. Part of him still doesn’t fully trust the technology.