Dog Day Afternoon – 11 April 2026

Translating a well-known work into a new medium over 50 years after both the event and the film chronicling the event is a challenge because, when revisiting material, people question why we are revisiting it. Some people are bound to want a faithful, exact retelling, while others are going to want to find something new that makes revisiting the material worthwhile. Dog Day Afternoon takes on this interesting challenge, knowing that it is impossible to please everybody. The middle ground that this play strikes is keeping the events faithful and slightly embellishing the characters.

While many of the other theatre critics who reviewed Dog Day Afternoon did not enjoy the humor injected into the female bank employees, I enjoyed the levity and found it to be just the right amount. Jessica Hecht was hysterical as Colleen, and her performance was nuanced and bright. For his part, lead actor Jon Bernthal (Sonny) held down his composure all through act one so that every crack in the armor shown in act two demanded that the audience recontextualize the beginning to make the pieces fit. Putting together this picture of a man who didn’t start out with all of his cards on the table was satisfyingly wonderful. I also enjoyed Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Sal, who faded into the background when needed and then surfaced when his character couldn’t take it anymore.  Moss-Bachrach delivered a deeply real and trauma informed performance. Esteban Andres Cruz stole my heart in the role of Leon, giving dignity to a person who the world was not kind to in 1972.

Cruz’s performance of what we would call a transgender woman today had high stakes in 2026 as transgender people are losing rights globally. Dog Day Afternoon uses the language of the 70s to talk about this character, defining Leon as a homosexual with he/him pronouns. The play is cleverly infused with language that acknowledges that today’s world has come farther in terms of respecting gender identity. Sonny is very proud, calling Leon his “wife” even over a lawfully wedded one. Sonny yells many nice things about homosexuals, and Leon mentions Detective Fucco (John Ortiz) as someone who “knows how to treat a lady.” In the end, the reason Sonny gives for the bank robbery is helping Leon pay for “the operation.” The toughest thing to talk about is that in 1972, Leon’s very existence was deemed a mental illness. Her advocacy for herself with Fucco when she doesn’t want to see Sonny hinges heavily upon her stating that she is not well. Though there’s no real closure for her character beyond Sonny’s final fantasy of her being alive, well, and beautiful, it’s hard to know how much of her perception of her mental health comes from mental health challenges versus being beaten down by society. Her inclusion in this story as a more fully realized transgender woman than the 1975 film allowed is deeply beautiful and represents the Broadway production’s ability to adeptly make its edits meaningful. It shows how intentional Stephen Adly Guirgis was in making changes.

The moment when Sonny first steps out and sees the full force of the police and FBI outside of the bank was one of the best executed immersive moments on Broadway right now. This heart-pounding moment included people dressed as cops in the aisles, the use of a megaphone, sound effects (Cody Spencer) and Sonny’s crowd work. I really felt moved in this moment, as the “Attica!” ad lib pulsated through the audience.

Overall, my ability to enjoy Dog Day Afternoon on Broadway is highly correlated with my ability to let expectations go and not sit there glued to a script from the 1975 film. This telling of the story is different, particularly regarding the women in the show. This is an adaptation, not a replication. It is engaging, memorable, and stirring—maybe not in the exact same ways as the film. I celebrate this production as an adaptation that has a little more to say. Dog Day Afternoon is a well thought out production that fully commits to revisiting the events of August 22, 1972 with a purposeful eye for how times have changed. The production is thoroughly grounded while remaining fun to watch and emotionally impactful.

I did not attend this performance on a press pass.