Junk NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (449)
See it if You have an interest and some knowledge of Wall Street activities. You're attuned to fast paced, intelligent, dialogue and unique staging.
Don't see it if You are seeking a fun-holiday play for friends/family. This is play is best for an avid theater goer who likes more challenging material. Read more
See it if Wow! Mr Akhtar does it again! Another well written play with complex characters & great direction.
Don't see it if If the story of Junk bonds and the disturbing distruction of US company's.
See it if You like intelligent plays about complicated issues.
Don't see it if You don’t like politically motivated theater.
See it if you love tense Wall Street dramas and great acting. Great writing and an ensemble cast.
Don't see it if How we got into this financial mess bores you and you don't like to talk about money.
See it if You like a well acted portrayal of events that were typical of those during the unregulated junk bond era. Thought provoking
Don't see it if You prefer to see a musical
See it if You like contemporary drama, brilliantly staged about our recent history.
Don't see it if You don't want to listen carefully
See it if Topical play that brings clarity to dealings in the financial world
Don't see it if You need to be able to really listen to get all the layers of this play
See it if you like historic plays and if you are interested in the stock market decline in the 80's. Production is iarge scale with large cast
Don't see it if if you only like musicals or if you don't care about plays about the stock market
Critic Reviews (51)
“The highly anticipated new play does tend to sacrifice intrigue for the sake of entertainment...The script offers no new insight...The predictability diminishes the suspense...A rather lackluster storyline...With a cast numbering twenty-three it is problematic that there is not one persona that the audience can love or for that matter abhor...It will translate as an interesting and fast paced chronicle that is presented in a very impressive package.”
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"If there’s little that feels unfamiliar or especially timely in 'Junk,' Akhtar has written a reasonably lucid primer on the process and logic of 1980s corporate takeovers...Director Doug Hughes makes the two and a half hours of the play go swiftly...It’s in one way to Akhtar’s credit that he creates no complete villains in 'Junk'...But there are also certainly no heroes."
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"Akhtar’s dense work simultaneously furrowed my brow and had me on the edge of my seat. It strikes a similar chord to other masterworks that unapologetically delve into a particular place and time...Pasquale’s cold charisma is infectious, and Akhtar’s script gives him enough ammunition that his scheming maintains plausibility...'Junk' could become esoteric if in the wrong hands. Fortunately, director Doug Hughes keeps the pace brisk."
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“Hughes's production…drives the action like a race car, the engine's roaring captured in the high-decibel, 300-horsepower performances of almost every character. You get little opportunity to ponder the nuances of the complex fiscal and legal patois as Akhtar steers us down the twisting road…Despite the…shiny surfaces, including a sleek, abstract set by John Lee Beatty, the play never fully humanizes the characters or makes Merkin's intrigues all that compelling.”
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"The timing of the play is the problem...The playwright’s consideration of junk-bond king Milken‘s manipulations of the market comes rather late in the day...Akhtar aims for his wrangle with junk bonds as a metaphor for any stripe of shady financial dealings, but that carries neither enough weight nor enough suspense to sustain this two-act piece...He might have racked up more points with something torn more definitively from 2017 headlines."
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"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...'Junk' would be worth a lot more if the audience was given a better sense of what drives Merkin...'Junk' isn’t junk – it’s smart, speedy, often adroit. But an AAA play might dare some answers."
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"You have to scratch your head in wonderment at why the talented writer of 'Disgraced' bothered with a subject that movies have handled so much more effectively... 'Junk' might have been a guilty pleasure...Instead, Akhtar attempts to explain complicated business deals involving junk bonds and debt, and not for a moment does any actor on stage emerge as anything other than a pale avatar recycled from any of the movies mentioned above...In the theater, greed is now simply tedious."
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"The world of high finance of the 1980s is illuminated in fascinatingly meticulous detail...What we get is a financial fantasyland filled with undercurrents of greed, race, sex and other passions: all in all, a contemporary morality play. Make that immorality play... Akhtar’s writing is smart, focused and laser-sharp...The cast includes a handful of sterling performances...Director Hughes handles the action exceedingly well...Akhtar & Co. provide a theatrical jolt with 'Junk.'"
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