Sometimes when I visit New York, I like to see what celebrities are gracing the Broadway stage. It typically won’t be for musicals, so I was pleased to see that the stage adaptation of Dog Day Afternoon was going to be showing with stars Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach! As a fan of these two guys working together, I knew I had to go.
In truth, I have actually never seen the film that this play is based on, so I had absolute no frame of reference or anything to compare it to. Now, I did know from a high level that the story is about a man trying to rob a bank for his lover to get sex reassignment surgery. Honestly I had no clue it took place in the 70s, but that did definitely add to the story. In this particular play, there were only two set pieces. That of the exterior of the bank, and then the interior. It was really cool watching the big piece swivel back and forth throughout the show.
The story starts at the end of a normal banking day when Sonny and two of his buddies head in and hold some guns up making their demands. Things start falling off the rails a bit pretty quickly. That’s got a lot do with the cast of characters in this bank. The manager is a little clueless, and the tellers are all a bit brash and not willing to take a whole lot of crap. I actually think they could have gotten out of the whole robbery if it were just Sonny and Ray Ray, but Sal brought an unpredictable and unstable edge to the whole thing. It really did seem like one wrong move and he’d shoot a hole through whatever passed by. It also didn’t help that he was high.
With Ray Ray bailing early, it’s just Sonny and Sal holding down the fort, which soon comes under the eyes of the police and even the FBI. As their time in the bank rolls on, it’s clear that Sonny is a good and charismatic guy that truly doesn’t mean any of the employees any harm. Things improve even more when Sonny bargains for donuts from the cop trying to wrap his arms around this whole thing. In fact, they like Sonny, and even Sal eventually, so much that they refuse on several occassions to leave with the police. They are hostages, but hardly. I did find it funny though that they kept saying “in case I die today.”
Speaking of, there were many comedic bits throughout this play. Now, I would assume that the actual movie is very tense and dramatic. I’m not saying funny things weren’t said, but I imagine it was more of a sober delivery. I was surprised and impressed that the comedy here actually worked without making the subject matter seem like a joke. Just after a heartfelt moment between Sonny and his lover on the phone, things escalate pretty quickly with some carnage and actual fake blood spatter into the audience that really lends some authenticity to the whole thing. All in all, I thought this play filled out nicely and was expertly executed.
I don’t know how long the run of this play is, but I’m glad I was able to fit it in this trip! Thankfully the weather was nice, so we stuck around the stage door afterwards and caught glimpses of the entire cast! I even managed to get Jon and Ebon to sign my Playbill! Unforgettable!