![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Ebon-Moss-Bachrach-as-Sal-Jon-Bernthal-as-Sonny-photo-Matthew-Murphy-and-Evan-Zimmerman-2.jpg\")
<\/a>Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Sal, Jon Bernthal as Sonny, photo Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.<\/p>\nYou know that feeling when a play grabs you by the collar, whispers \u201cAttica\u201d in your ear, and then can\u2019t quite figure out how to let you go? That\u2019s the new Broadway stage adaptation of Dog Day Afternoon, written by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Rupert Goold. This production\u2014set in the sweltering August of 1972 at a Chase Manhattan bank in Brooklyn\u2014has moments of blistering, street-level brilliance, but too often plays like a sitcom that wandered into a tragedy.<\/p>\n
The best thing in this play isn\u2019t the politics, the heist, or even Jon Bernthal\u2019s sweaty intensity. It\u2019s Jessica Hecht as Colleen, the chief teller. Hecht delivers a Brooklyn accent so perfect you can almost smell the egg creams and hot pavement. Colleen is tough, direct, and utterly believable as a woman who has spent years caring for her mother and aunt, never finding love, and now has only one job: protect \u201cher girls.\u201d Every time Hecht is on stage, the play stops drifting and locks into focus.<\/p>\n
The premise remains the classic one: three guys walk into a bank at closing time. One (Christopher Sears) is flaky and bolts. That leaves Sal (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), an ex-con who looks like he\u2019s preparing for the Alamo with a rifle plus three pistols tucked into his belt, and Sonny (Jon Bernthal, channeling Pacino\u2019s curly-haired desperation). What we eventually learn\u2014and it takes a while\u2014is that Sonny organized this whole mess to pay for gender-affirming surgery for his male lover, Leon. He\u2019s also married with kids. It\u2019s complicated, to say the least.<\/p>\n The script knows its history. When Colleen mentions Attica, the audience cheers. There\u2019s a sharp, recurring argument about the difference between thieves who are people and billionaires who are criminals. A local liquor store owner, Young Nesbit (Michael Shayan), complains that cops routinely pillage his booze. FBI Agent Sheldon (Spencer Garrett), is a right-winger who attacks \u201cliberal egalitarian bullshit society\u201d and wants to go in guns blazing. You\u2019re meant to hate him, and you will.<\/p>\n And for all the Attica references and Rockefeller-bashing, the problem: the play starts like a bad sitcom. For the first twenty minutes, I thought, This is why I don\u2019t watch television. Sal chews gum and acts \u201coff-kilter.\u201d Sonny shouts. The accents vary wildly (though most aim for Brooklyn). The characters\u2014the secular Jewish manager who became a Quaker for his wife, the teller who had an affair with a married professor\u2014often feel like stereotypes rather than people.<\/p>\n The politics aren\u2019t enough to save the play\u2019s structural issues. The neighborhood cop (John Ortiz\u2019s Detective Fucco) who wants to de-escalate? Seen it. The nasty FBI guy? Seen it. The play wants to be a working-class tragedy, a queer liberation story, a media satire (they lie) and a hostage thriller. That\u2019s a lot of plates to spin, and a few of them smash.<\/p>\n The second act is stronger than the first. \u00a0The play treats Sonny\u2019s bisexuality and Leon\u2019s identity with humor but real care. Esteban Andres Cruz as Leon is terrific\u2014vulnerable, frayed, a sex worker with mental health struggles who just wants to be seen. When the TV news blurts out \u201cavowed homosexuals\u201d and Sal panics (\u201cI\u2019m not a homosexual!\u201d), Sonny\u2019s quiet correction\u2014\u201cActually, I am\u201d\u2014lands with weight. A later scene with a member of the Gay Liberation Front gives the evening its most thoughtful political speech.<\/p>\n Once the hostages get to phones, once Leon is on the line, once the Gay Liberation Front shows up, the play finds its heartbeat. Sonny\u2019s remark about going to Julius\u2019<\/a> on a Monday night (wink to those who know it\u2019s a famous gay bar) is a nice touch. Bernthal sweats nobly in Pacino\u2019s shadow. Moss-Bachrach does flaky menace well enough. The highlight is the courage and clarity of Jessica Hecht\u2019s Colleen. She\u2019s the real bank vault here\u2014tough, direct, and worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n The Attica cheer, the Brooklyn accents, and a transgender storyline are handled with care. But the sitcom bones and stereotypes keep it from being the classic it wants to be.<\/p>\n \u201cDog Day Afternoon<\/a>.\u201d Written by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Rupert Goold. Based on Life Magazine article \u201cThe Boys in the Bank\u201d by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore and Warner Bros. film \u201cDog Day Afternoon.\u201d August Wilson Theatre, 245 W 52nd St, NYC. Runtime 2hrs10min. Box Office (888) 959-1878. $45 same day rush tickets<\/a>. Opened March 30, 2026, closes July 18, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Lucy Komisar Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Sal, Jon Bernthal as Sonny, photo Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. You…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-187969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187969","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=187969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Wilemina Olivia-Garcia as Lorna, Andrea Syglowski as Alison, Jon Bernthal as Sonny, Elizabeth Canavan as Roxxanna, Paola L\u00e1zaro as Guadalupe, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Sal, Michael Kostroff as Butterman, photo Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.<\/p>\n<\/a>Jon Bernthal as Sonny, Jessica Hecht as Colleen, photo Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.<\/p>\n<\/a>Spencer Garrett as FBI Agent Sheldon, John Ortiz as Detective Fucco, photo Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.<\/p>\n<\/a>Esteban Andres Cruz as Leon, photo Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.<\/p>\n