Good writers borrow, great writers steal. Jacob McNeal 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.
"The lead, agent and reporter were very well acted. Intelligent dialog. It was thought provoking. It felt like a run on sentence and it could have been done a tad shorter. Definitely happy we went. "
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Broadway.com Customer on Nov 22, 2024
"Acting is superb with a story that takes an eerie look at how far AI is or is not infiltrating art. Makes you think and keep wondering long after the performance. One hour and 40 minutes with no intermission. Would recommend!"
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Broadway.com Customer on Nov 18, 2024
"Robert Downey Jr. delivers a stellar performance as a NY Times best seller writer who is waiting to hear if he has received a Nobel Prize.
Andrea Martin lend humor to the exhausting, serious script which deals with AI.
The story is dark and caused me great distress. "
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Robin K from New York on Oct 23, 2024
"This was the first play I've seen that really attempted to grapple with the addictive, probably malignant future of using AI as a creative. Why sweat over a new book as a has-been writer when you can have AI invent new books in your style? Why do the deep work of grappling with your wife’s death when you can just throw her journals and manuscript into an AI generator to make a coherent, more palatable version. In your voice no less!
Let’s not mince words though, this was a play driven very much by RDJ's starpower. He’s on stage pretty much the whole time, no intermission, and with that distinctive style of speaking you’re hearing RDJ so he’s very much there as an avatar of himself. This may as well be an alternate universe RDJ who took his talents to writing instead of acting and even went through similar peaks and valleys.
I don't want to spoil the ending of the show but rather than any kind of resolution or statement (which is seems to intentionally try to subvert) we end up with what best can be described as anti-plot. It's all a little sudden and left a bad taste in my mouth."
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ALEX C from Garrison on Sep 11, 2024
"The actors were fantastic. The story was interesting, but too many unanswered question. Expect a very diciotomous conversation with those who attended with you."
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Broadway.com Customer on Oct 28, 2024
"I thought the play itself was rather clichéd. The debate over AI felt heavy handed. Robert Downey Jr’s performance was good but the characters were all two dimensional. "
