Junk

B+

Lincoln Center Theater has pulled out all the stops for its production of Ayad Akhtar’s (Disgraced, The Invisible Hand) look back at the world of finance in 1985. The size of the cast — 23 — and the sleek set by John Lee Beatty with modules that pop out as needed to facilitate smooth scene changes suggest that no corners were cut here. This is appropriate to the play’s theme. Robert Merkin (Stephen Pasquale; The Bridges of Madison County, Far From Heaven), the central character, is loosely based on Michael Milken, who turned the financial world upside down with his unsentimental application of the logic of globalism to corporate America, which often made companies worth more if they were dismembered and their unprofitable manufacturing operations closed irrespective of the number of jobs lost. The play follows the attempted hostile takeover of Everson Steel by a company backed by Merkin, who has discovered that Thomas Everson, Jr. (Rick Holmes; Hapgood, Matilda) has been cooking the books to hide the fact that profits from their pharmaceutical division have been used to hide the losses of their steel mills. When Israel Peterman (Matthew Rauch), whose company Merkin has selected to acquire Everson, and Merkin meet with Everson and his lawyer Maximilian Cizik (Henry Stram; The Cruiclble), it does not go well. The not so subtle anti-Semitism of the white-shoe financial powers versus the Jews who are threatening their status quo is an underlying theme. Some of the other characters we meet are an ambitious journalist Judy Chen (Teresa Avia Lim); Merkin’s loyal attorney Raul Rivera (Matthew Saldivar; Act One, Honeymon in Vegas), Murray Lefkowitz (Ethan Phillips), an investor with a nervous wife; Jacqueline Blount (Ito Aghayere), a lawyer who plays both sides against each other; Leo Tesler (Michael Siberry; When the Rain Stops Falling), an older investor with a taste for Judy and a distaste for “junk”; Boris Pronsky (Joey Slotnick; The Front Page), a shady middleman that Merkin’s wife Amy (Miriam Silverman; A Delicate Ship) begs him not to do business with; and Giuseppe Addesso (Charlie Semine), the N.Y. district attorney who is running for mayor. Virtually every character is corrupted by money at some point along the way. The lack of anyone sympathetic to root for is a problem for me. It is basically an ensemble piece with too many characters for any of them to be developed in much depth. If you are too young to remember the rise and fall of Milken, you may learn something new. Otherwise, your level of engagement may depend on your interest in finance and the economy. There’s more here to engage the intellect than the emotions. I thought Lucy Prebble’s play Enron was far superior. Catherine Zuber’s (Oslo, The King and I) costumes befit their characters. Doug Hughes (The City of Conversation, The Father) skillfully keeps the many strands under control. Running time: two hours 20 minutes including intermission.

The Moors

C

Jen Silverman’s dark, quirky comedy for Playwrights Realm brings us the world of the Brontes with a touch of Beckett. Agatha and Huldey are sisters living in the family manse after the death of their father. Agatha, a seemingly serene spinster, as played by Linda Powell (The Christians), is a dead ringer for Gertrude Stein. Her emotionally flamboyant younger sister Huldey (Birgit Huppuch of Men on Boats) has literary pretensions and tries to read her diary to anyone who will listen. Emilie (Chasten Harmon) is a pretty young governess who has just arrived after being recruited through letters allegedly written by the sisters’ unseen brother Branwell. The reasons for his absence and for her being hired to care for a nonexistent child are eventually revealed. Hannah Cabell (Men on Boats) plays the dour Marjory, the scullery maid, and Mallory, the parlor maid, who may be the same person. Andrew Garman (The Christians) plays the sisters’ large mastiff who suffers from loneliness and depression. Teresa Avia Lim plays the injured moor-hen the mastiff takes a fancy to and has philosophical discussions with. All the repressed emotion leads to an outburst of violence, followed by a song, complete with mic. The ending is rather low-key. The subplot of the two animals is interesting, but does not really cohere with the main story. The production is first-rate. The cast is uniformly strong, the understated set by Dane Laffrey is evocative, the costumes by Anita Yavich are wonderful, the lighting by Jen Schriever is effective and there’s lots of fog. Mike Donahue’s direction is smooth. What the play lacks in coherence, it almost makes up for in cleverness and originality. It would benefit from a 15-minute trim. It was well-received by the audience, which must have had a median age below 30. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission.