‘JUNK’: Matthew Rauch & Steven Pasquale. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

JUNK
By Ayad Akhtar
Directed by Doug Hughes
Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont
50 Lincoln Center Plaza
212-362-7200, www.lct.org

By Scott Harrah

The maxim “truth is stranger than fiction” certainly applies to fact-based dramas chronicling the greed, glory and guile of the financial world like The Big Short and The Wolf of Wall Street and the British stage bio-drama Enron. Junk, playwright Ayad Akhtar’s often riveting, unusual follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Disgraced, is a fictionalized composite of such real-life Wall Street devils as Michael Millken and Ivan Boesky. It has all the elements of a bona fide blockbuster about the go-go 1980s, complete with high-tech sets by John Lee Beatty.

Steven Pasquale plays Robert Merkin (loosely based on Michael Millken), the mastermind behind a Los Angeles-based investment firm that specializes in hostile takeovers circa 1985. Mr. Merkin gets a lot of media attention for claiming that debt payments can be somehow transformed into big bucks. Much of the story centers on Merkin’s company working on a Pennsylvania company, Everson Steel, a family business run by CEO Thomas Everson, Jr. (Rick Holmes).

A cast of unsavory characters add intrigue to the fast-paced but all-too-familiar action, from corporate shark Israel Peterman (Matthew Rauch) to investors Leo Tesler (Michael Siberry) and Murry Lefkowitz (Ethan Phillips), Jacqueline Blount (Ito Aghayere) as a mole planted at Everson Steel, ruthless young journalist Judy Chen (Teresa Avia Lim), and Joey Slotnick as Boris Pronsky, an arbitrageur who profits from manipulating price inefficiencies in financial markets. As confusing as corporate finance can be to the layperson, Mr. Akhtar makes everything unfold seamlessly as if it were a fun escapist Hollywood movie.

John Lee Beatty’s clever sets (featuring flashing numbers and lit-up compartments on stage that may remind some of TV’s “Hollywood Squares”) move the story around brilliantly from Los Angeles to New York to Allegheny, Pennsylvania.

Most of the cast of 23 each give solid performances, but Junk is a far cry from Disgraced,  Mr. Akhtar’s play about Islamophobia and a dinner party gone horribly wrong. That show was the winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for drama, with an acclaimed Broadway run in 2014. Director Doug Hughes deserves credit for keeping Junk moving at a wonderfully fluid pace, but with so many characters and subplots, the story might have been more focused and powerful with minor trimming of the narrative fat.

As Robert Merkin, Steven Pasquale lacks the sense of Machiavellian menace necessary to truly make the character effective, and this is unfortunate since the whole play is basically his story. Junk is, without question, an entertaining epic about the excesses of the 1980s but it curiously has nothing new or insightful to say about an era when junk bonds and insider trading wreaked havoc in America.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published November 6, 2017
Reviewed at November 5, 2017 press performance.

‘JUNK’: Teresa Avia Lim & Michael Siberry. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

‘JUNK’: Steven Pasquale. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

‘JUNK’: Ito Aghayere & Matthew Saldivar. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

‘JUNK’: Henry Stram (standing) & Rick Holmes (seated). Photo: T. Charles Erickson

‘JUNK’: The company. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

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‘THE FATHER’: Frank Langella & Kathryn Erbe. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE FATHER
Written by Florian Zeller
Translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Doug Hughes
Through June 12, 2016
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200), www.manhattantheatreclub.com

By David Nounou

To say The Father is a harrowing play is an understatement. The uniqueness of this play is we are ultimately viewing it from the perspective of the person with dementia and not from the usual perspective of family, relatives or caregivers. For anyone who has had to deal with a parent, spouse, loved one or friend, from the onset of dementia to finally succumbing to it, is a horrific ordeal. However, Florian Zeller, the French playwright, has made this disease into an unforgettable theatrical experience

We see Andre (Frank Langella) in his deluxe Paris apartment rebuking his daughter, Anne (Kathryn Erbe) for suggesting that he should have someone look after him during the day. He accuses his former caregiver of stealing his watch so he threw her out. Anne tells and proves to Andre that the caregiver did not steal his watch, but he hid it himself in the kitchen cupboard. Andre is constantly demanding to see his other daughter, Elise and why doesn’t she come to visit him, and so the journey in the mind begins.

There are a lot of twists and turns in The Father that would be criminal to divulge. Suffice it to say it is one of the most riveting plays on Broadway this year. What gives it that additional suspense is the impeccable performance by Frank Langella. When we first see his Andre all dressed and pressed in his living room, we almost believe by his forth righteousness that it is Anne who is scheming to put him away. Watching Mr. Langella–first as a charming bastion of strength to the bitter end as layer after layer of his sanity being peeled away–is watching one of the most magnificent performances of the year.

Miss Erbe’s Anne is sympathetic and caring; she does her best to take care of Andre even at the expense of her own she relationship with Pierre (Brian Evers) who suggests putting him in a care facility. They both give fine performances but the attention is always on Mr. Langella.

The one distraction of the play is the lights that flash at the audience to indicate scene changes; when you have such a heavy subject, those lights become a nuisance. Doug Hughes, the director, should have softened the distracting light effect because it takes away from the tension and the drama created on the stage. However, due to Mr. Langella’s superior performance we overcome this obstacle.

Through Mr. Zeller’s interpretation and Mr. Langella’s performance, we see dementia in a new light; not as observing the patient with this disease, but seeing events that might have happened a day ago or a minute ago through the eyes of the patient and the moment-to-moment ordeals they face on a daily basis.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 18, 2016
Reviewed at performance on April 17, 2016

‘THE FATHER’: Frank Langella & Hannah Cabbell. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE FATHER’: Frank Langella. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE FATHER’: Frank Langella. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE FATHER’: Kathryn Erbe & Frank Langella. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE FATHER’: Kathryn Erbe & Frank Langella. Photo: Joan Marcus

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EMERALD ISLE GEM: Brian F. O’Byrne & Debra Messing in ‘Outside Mullingar.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

OUTSIDE MULLINGAR
Written by John Patrick Shanley
Directed by Doug Hughes
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200), www.ManahattanTheatreClub.com

By David NouNou

You know the old saying, “The two things you can be certain of in life are death and taxes”? Well, the two things you can be sure of in any Irish themed-play are talks about deaths and wakes, but seldom are they told as humorously, charmingly and tenderly as in John Patrick Shanley’s new play, Outside Mullingar. However, this is not the main focus of the show; it is just the framework of this lovely and delicately written play.

Anthony Reilly (Brian F. O’Byrne) and his father Tony Reilly (Peter Maloney) have just returned home after attending the Muldoon wake. Muldoon is survived by his wife Aoife (Dearbhla Molloy) and his daughter Rosemary (Debra Messing). The Reillys and Muldoons also happen to be across-the-road neighbors, so there is a bond between the families. Tony is old and realizes his mortality, so his big dilemma is whether he should leave his land to his shy and introverted son Anthony or sell it to an American cousin. In order to be able to sell said property, there is a piece of the driveway that has been sold to the Muldoons 30 years earlier when Tony needed money to buy a ring for his now-deceased wife. Papa Muldoon gave this piece of land to Rosemary as a present when she was a little girl. Naturally, Rosemary refuses to sell this piece for her own personal reasons. So starts this wonderful little tale of Blarney.

Mr. Shanley knows how to write delectable parts for actors who start out as introverted caterpillars and then bloom into beautiful butterflies. Who could ever forget his Oscar-winning screenplay for Moonstruck? Instead of the metropolis of Brooklyn and Italians, he mixes it up with farmland Mullingar and the Irish. It may not be as mesmerizing as Moonstruck, but it still hits the right chords to make us care, for his characters, all of whom are imbued with humanity and humor.

Mr. O’Byrne is an incredible stage actor and also one of the finest. He is also blessed with stage presence and charisma. Broadway audiences first saw him in Martin McDonough’s The Beauty Queen of Leanane, followed by countless plays: Tom Stoppard’s epic The Coast of Utopia, his Tony- winning role in Frozen, and Mr. Shanley’s earlier, brilliant Doubt (one of the best plays ever written). Mr. O’Byrne has always delivered a new character to each of his new roles, and Anthony is no exception. One can’t help but want to protect and cheer for this shy noble caterpillar who will ultimately find its wing and soar.

It is such a pleasure to report that Debra Messing is making an auspicious Broadway debut. She is still as beautiful as she was in the TV sitcom “Will & Grace” and thankfully has managed to shed her cloying, needy and selfish Grace persona. She is a delicious frumpy spitfire here, and manages to pull off a creditable Irish brogue.

Peter Maloney is a wonderful veteran stage character actor who first came on the Broadway scene in Hughie/Duet  with Ben Gazzara in1975. How gratifying to finally see him do an original part that hopefully gets him some recognition come Tony season. His cantankerous Tony is full of humor, anxiety and thorniness. His scenes with the equally delightful Ms. Molloy are a joy as they volley their barbs against each other.

Mr. Shanley has a wonderful director in Doug Hughes. They both won their Tonys for Doubt. They understand each other’s language and rhythms, thus they complement each other for the stage. Outside Mullingar may not be inspirational, but it will certainly put a smile on your face and give you a warm, fuzzy glow on these cold and snowy New York nights.

FAMILY FRIENDS: Debra Messing and Peter Maloney in ‘Outside Mullingar.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Tony Nominated for Best Play of 2014

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published January 26, 2014
Reviewed at  press performance on January 25, 2014

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