Steven Pasquale to Lead Ayad Akhtar's JUNK on Broadway

Lincoln Center Theater has announced that Steven Pasquale will head the cast of its upcoming production of Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar's new play Junk, directed by Doug Hughes, beginning previews Thursday, October 5 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Opening night is Thursday, November 2.

Complete casting for Junk, which is being produced by arrangement with The Araca Group, will be announced at a later date.

Steven Pasquale will play Robert Merkin, the resident genius of the upstart investment firm Sacker Lowell, who has just landed on the cover of Time Magazine. It's 1985, hailed as "America's Alchemist," his proclamation that "debt is an asset" has propelled him to dizzying heights. Zealously promoting his belief in the near-sacred infallibility of markets, he is trying to re-shape the world.

JUNK is the story of Merkin's assault on American capitalism's holy of holies, the "deal of the decade," his attempt to takeover an iconic American manufacturing company and, in the process, to change all the rules. What Merkin sets in motion is nothing less than a financial civil war, pitting magnates against workers, lawyers against journalists, and ultimately, pitting everyone against themselves.

Set over 30 years ago, this is a play about how, while most of us weren't watching, money became the only thing of real value.

JUNK will have sets by John Lee Beatty, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Ben Stanton, and original music and sound by Mark Bennett.

STEVEN PASQUALE returns to Lincoln Center Theater where he performed in A Man of No Importance (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations) and Spinning Into Butter. He starred on Broadway opposite Kelli O'Hara in The Bridges of Madison County (Drama League, Drama Desk nominations) and in Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty. Recent theater credits include Roundabout's The Robber Bridegroom (Lortel Award); Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party (Encores! and MTC); Billy Bigelow in Chicago Lyric Opera's Carousel; Far From Heaven, The Spitfire Grill (Playwrights Horizons); Tony Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures (The Public); A Soldier's Play (Second Stage); Neil LaBute's Fat Pig (MCC); and Beautiful Child (Vineyard Theater). Pasquale is best known for starring on the hit FX series "Rescue Me" as firefighter Sean Garrity. Other television credits include Detective Mark Furhman on FX's "American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson;" "Six Feet Under" (HBO); "Billions" (Showtime); "Do No Harm," "Up All Night" (NBC); "The Good Wife" (CBS); "Bloodline" (Netflix); "Coma" (A&E); and "Marry Me" (Lifetime). He has also appeared in Sofia Coppola's "Platinum," and will next be seen opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in HBO's "Divorce." Pasquale's film credits include Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, Aurora Borealis, and Jonathan's Segal's The Last Run. His debut solo album, Somethin' Like Love, was released in 2009 by PS Classics. Later this summer, Pasquale will be seen in Assassins in City Center's Encores! Off-Center series.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride