Ayad Akhtar

Broadway Review: “McNeal” at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (Closed on Sunday, November 24, 2024)

“McNeal,” currently on at the Vivan Beaumont Theater, is playwright Ayad Akhtar’s exploration into the unexpected confluence of plagiarism, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the canon of western literature through the life and writing of renowned playwright Jacob McNeal (a cantankerous but magnetic Robert Downing Jr) who is, at the play’s onset, “badgering” Chat GPT on his iPhone to predict whether…

Broadway Review: “JUNK” at the Vivian Beaumont in Lincoln Center Theater

The highly anticipated new play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Ayad Akhtar entitled “JUNK” – referring to the bonds sold in the 1980s by Machiavellian inside traders – does tend to sacrifice intrigue for the sake of entertainment. The plot centers around the fictional junk bond king Robert Merkin (played with unscrupulous charisma by Steven Pasquale), as he manipulates his…