Steven pasquale takes lead in pulitzer winner ayad akhtar’s ‘junk’ on broadway

EXCLUSIVE: I’m told that Steven Pasquale, who played Mark Fuhrman in FX’s _The People v. O.J. Simpson: __American Crime Story _and soon will be recurring on HBO’s _Divorce,_ will return to

Broadway this fall as the lead in Ayad Akhtar‘s new drama, _Junk_. Lincoln Center Theater is producing, by arrangement with The Araca Group. Akhtar won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for

_Disgraced_, a charged drama about identity and politics in the shadow of the 9/11 terrorist attacks._ Junk _had its premiere last summer at the La Jolla Playhouse, where it was hailed by

the _Los Angeles Times_ as “thrilling.” Doug Hughes (_The Father_, _Doubt_) reprises as director. The show is slated to begin previews October 5 and open November 2 at LCT’s Vivian Beaumont

Theater. The company describes the play this way: > It’s 1985. Robert Merkin, the resident genius of the upstart > investment firm Sacker Lowell has just landed on the cover of _Time_

> magazine. 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 every > one against themselves. >  > Set over thirty years ago, this is a play

 about how, while most of > us weren’t watching, money became the only thing of real value. In his _L.A. Times _review,_ _critic Charles McNulty wrote: “If this topic seems more suitable

for a CNBC investigation than a stage play, let me assure you that Akhtar’s handling — brisk, lucid and at times highly suspenseful — is dramatically enthralling. The production, directed by

Doug Hughes with the precision of a chess master, never loses steam as it moves from the boardroom to the bedroom to the backroom, where the most fateful deals are ultimately determined.”

WATCH ON DEADLINE Pasquale – who was extraordinary in recent productions of _The Robber Bridegroom_, off-Broadway, and _The Bridges of Madison County_ on Broadway – will play the Henry

Kravis-like takeover king Merkin. Prior to _Junk_, he’s set to appear as John Wilkes Booth in the Encores! Off-Center revival of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s _Assassins _in July.

Pasquale is represented by ICM Partners and Brookside Artist Management.