Epistrophe

May 7, 2026

Dog Day Afternoon on Broadway

     To some, Dog Day Afternoon might now seem a dated Sidney Lumet film starring Al Pacino about a real-life Brooklyn bank heist gone wrong, with heroes chiseled from good intentions and villains derived from local and federal law enforcement. The Stephen Adly Guirgis transformation of the tale into a Broadway play that’s beginning to wind down its run at the August Wilson Theatre might seem nostalgic at best, superfluous at its worst. Thankfully it’s none of these things. 

     Initiated by its stars Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, the theatrical Dog Day Afternoon resonates today, maybe even more than it did as a film over half a century ago. The play’s humanity, just like the movie’s, provides relevance and, couched in events that manage to touch upon class, identity, empathy and intolerance, it succeeds as a reminder of our collective flaws and how misguided we can become because of them.

In just over two hours, we watch as the characters sequestered in the impressively designed Chase Manhattan Bank stage set bond over their failures in relationships, commiserate about their lives and unexpectedly connect for a short time. Some would explain it as Stockholm Syndrome, but this is something else, something more conscious, more intentional. As the initial fears of the bank employees slowly turn to merely reflex, they become protective of their captors, just as the robbers Sonny and Sal grow comfortable in their temporary surroundings, the former treating his hostages as fellow companions. It’s the cops and feds he has trouble relating to since neither offer anything genuine in the way of communication or understanding.  

     Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach have already demonstrated their rapport as actors in the first season of the Netflix series The Punisher in which they play the title character and his partner Micro, respectively. Their subsequent turn as Mikey and Ritchie in Hulu’s The Bear followed, creating a complex study of two friends beset by their own insecurities, jealousies and shortcomings. One need only check out the recent stand-alone episode of the series, “Gary,” to witness the relationship at its highest and lowest points. But Dog Day Afternoon, the latest of their team-ups, is their first on Broadway and hopefully not their last.  

     As Sonny, Bernthal is a juggernaut wielding a range of emotions throughout his time onstage. By the time the play arrives at its iconic “Attica” moment, he directs the audience from the stage as if it’s the crowd gathered outside the bank, inciting us, drawing us to join in the chant, relishing the moment and, as with the bank employees, garnering our trust and support for the rest of the play. It’s something the movie couldn’t do with a filmed and edited crowd of extras. Moss-Bachrach, on the other hand, effectively underplays Sal, keeping his issues boiling beneath the surface, occasionally allowing hints as a reminder of how wrong things can go in this play. 

     As a stage production, everything goes right with Dog Day Afternoon, even if it didn’t on August 22, 1972 one borough away in Brooklyn when the line between hero and villain was irrevocably blurred.  

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