Junk - 2017 Broadway History , Info & More
Vivian Beaumont Theatre (Broadway)
150 West 65th St. at Broadway New York, NY 10023
Ayad Akhtar returns to Lincoln Center Theater with his new play, JUNK. Set in the high-flying, risk-seeking, teetering financial world of the 1980s and inspired by the real junk bond kings of the day, this riveting story shows us from the inside how money became the only thing that mattered.
Financier Robert Merkin will stop at nothing to take over an iconic American manufacturing company, changing the rules as he goes. With his brilliance matched only by his swagger, Merkin sets in motion nothing less than a financial civil war, pitting magnates against workers, lawyers against journalists, and every one against themselves.
Steven Pasquale (The Bridges of Madison County and TV's "Rescue Me") leads an impeccable cast, directed by Tony winner Doug Hughes (Doubt), in this no-holds-barred portrait of the dark side of the American Dream.
Junk - 2017 - Broadway Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Junk
Junk review – Ayad Akhtar's fast-paced financial thriller falls short
6 / 10
Akhtar favors classical structures and this mention of kings prepares us for classical tragedy with a Brooks Brothers wardrobe. Here's Merkin, a mostly good 'king' who oversteps and suffers the consequences. But with its clipped scenes and brisk, brash dialogue, Junk feels poised, and not always easily, between moral tragedy and popcorn thriller. And it can't quite make up its mind about the man at its center, a stance that seems intellectually honest and dramatically wimpy.
These Wolves of Wall Street Are All Too Familiar: Review of Ayad Akhtar’s ‘Junk’
7 / 10
From the outset, Junk by Ayad Akhtar feels too familiar to be original-it is yet another play about greedy and venal Wall Street types behaving greedily and venally in the mid-1980s when Junk is set. Characters are variously housed in two rows of Hollywood Squares-like cells, or stalk to the front of a bare, handsomely lit stage-a dark parody of a game show, perhaps-to assail us with wry observations about capitalism. They also inform us, in their brutal, dense financial argot, about what they are about to do to buy, sell, or destroy. Each character feels familiar, each set-up feels familiar, the butch tone and swagger feels familiar. If you've seen Wall Street, or The Wolf of Wall Street, or Enron, or Margin Call, or Arbitrage, you've seen most if not all of the vital elements of Junk.
Category
Junk History
Other Productions of Junk
| 2017 | Broadway |
Lincoln Center Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Junk - 2017 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | Junk |
| 2018 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Ben Stanton |
| 2018 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Ayad Akhtar |
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