The new play, “Junk,” tells a fictionalized story inspired by events from the 1980s, when deal-making, hostile takeovers, and high-yield debt financing (along with excess) were common. Now playing in New York City, the show is centered on the financier reminiscent of Michael Milken.
"Finance has become the dominant way of our being, of our national life," said playwright Ayad Akhtar. "What the play is attempting to do is to go back to that last moment in our history when the battle for who owns America could still be waged."
This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Akhtar, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, about his show "Junk" and the links between finance in the 1980s and today.
The Lincoln Center Theater, 150 West 65th Street, New York
Playing through Jan. 7, 2018