{"id":180547,"date":"2026-03-31T06:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180547\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:19:16","slug":"dog-day-afternoon-now-you-too-can-chant-attica-attica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180547\/","title":{"rendered":"Dog Day Afternoon: Now You Too Can Chant “Attica! Attica!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 31, 2026 12:01 am <\/p>\n

By Frank Scheck<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606 Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bacharach star in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ stage adaptation of the classic 1975 film. <\/p>\n

\"\"Jon Bernthal and Jessica Hecht in Dog Day Afternoon. Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman<\/p>\n

The creators of Dog Day Afternoon, the new stage adaptation of the classic 1975 film, take a lot of trouble to set the scene. David Korins\u2019 spectacular set design of a vintage Chase Manhattan Bank sits next to giant neon letters announcing, \u201cBrooklyn, August 22, 1972.\u201d And the script by Stephen Adly Guirgis constantly name-drops iconic New York institutions of the era, including Luchow\u2019s, Crazy Eddie, Roseland, Bamberger\u2019s, and Beefsteak Charlie\u2019s. After the show, you\u2019ll want to go out in search of an Orange Julius.<\/p>\n

The nostalgia overload befits this entertaining if wholly unnecessary stage version of Sidney Lumet\u2019s practically classic film featuring iconic performances by Al Pacino and John Cazale as Sonny and Sal, two hapless would-be bank robbers whose attempt goes horribly awry and creates a hostage situation extensively covered live on television. The story is based on a real-life incident in which two men, John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile, held several bank employees hostage for fourteen hours in a stand-off with law enforcement until\u2026well, no spoiler alerts here. Although it\u2019s a good bet you already know.<\/p>\n

Actually, if you don\u2019t know, you stand a better chance of enjoying the evening on its own elaborate terms rather than making constant comparisons that don\u2019t serve the play well. Guirgis \u2014 whose acclaimed dramas include Jesus Hopped the \u2018A\u2019 Train, Our Lady of 121st Street, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Between Riverside and Crazy \u2014 hews fairly closely to the source material, including many familiar moments from the film\u2019s Oscar-winning script. He has also attempted to make it his own, mainly by making the tone significantly lighter and placing more emphasis on the gay Sonny\u2019s sexuality.<\/p>\n

[Read Roma Torre\u2019s \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606 review here.<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Since I chose not to rewatch the film (it\u2019s been a while), it\u2019s hard to tell whether such lame exchanges as Sonny announcing \u201cThis is Brooklyn, not Mister Rogers Neighborhood,\u201d only to be rebuked, \u201cMister Rogers wouldn\u2019t have you in his neighborhood,\u201d are borrowed or newly invented. But I definitely know that an absurdly drawn-out gag involving a seriously wounded bank guard (Danny Johnson) practically rising from the dead only to deliver a laugh line is new, and it\u2019s terrible.<\/p>\n

Mostly, you concentrate on the lavish revolving set depicting both the interior and exterior of the bank, and the efforts of leads Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach to compete with the memories of their cinematic predecessors. The talented actors are stage veterans currently hot from films and television roles (both appear in the hit series The Bear), and they do fine work here. But let\u2019s face the facts, it\u2019s a losing battle. Pacino gave one of the all-time great screen performances and Cazale, who died just a few years later, was an ethereally strange, haunting presence. Bernthal gives it his all, proving both charismatic and funny, but he too often seems to be delivering a Pacino impression. And since Sal has relatively few lines, Moss-Bacharach largely melts into the background, not being able to benefit from cinematic close-ups. Indeed, the large August Wilson Theatre, more often used for musicals, seems too vast a space for what should be claustrophobic proceedings.<\/p>\n

As the frustrated cop dealing with Sonny, John Ortiz mainly flounders, saddled with a lame running gag in which his character, Detective Fucco, is taunted by an FBI agent (Spencer Garrett) who profanely and repeatedly mispronounces his name. The clear standout amidst the large supporting cast is the ever-reliable Jessica Hecht, whose hilarious line readings as the chief bank teller provide many of the play\u2019s laughs.<\/p>\n

Director Rupert Goold (Tammy Faye, Patriots, Ink) strains to infuse the proceedings with theatricality via such devices as having policeman stride down the theater\u2019s aisles aiming guns at the stage. The high point, as you might expect, is the iconic scene in which Sonny exits the bank and screams \u201cAttica! Attica!\u201d at the crowd. In this case, the audience serves as the onlookers, even shouting back at Bernthal as if they were at a Mamma Mia! Sing-along.<\/p>\n

The moment ironically served to demonstrate that this Dog Day Afternoon ultimately feels like a musicalization of the film minus the musical numbers. There are moments that practically beg to be song cues, such as the tender phone call between Sonny and his transgender wife Leon (Esteban Andres Cruz) that makes you think they\u2019re about to break out into a tender love ballad. Of course, the idea of a musical Dog Day Afternoon seems preposterous. But it would at least have a reason for being.<\/p>\n

Dog Day Afternoon opened March 30, 2026, at the August Wilson Theatre and runs through July 12. Tickets and information: dogdayafternoon.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 31, 2026 12:01 am By Frank Scheck \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606 Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bacharach star in Stephen Adly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-180547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}