“Dog Day Afternoon” begins outside a Chase Manhattan Bank, specifically, as playwright Stephen Adley Guirgis notes in his script, “a Street outside the bank on Avenue P in Gravesend Brooklyn. It is August 22nd, 1972.” While playwrights are responsible for creating a detailed world for their works, the address and date aren’t arbitrary. This is the actual address and date of the real-life bank robbery that inspired the film “Dog Day Afternoon” and now the eponymous Broadway play.
The dramatization onstage and on-screen follows Sonny and Sal, two best friends who rob a Brooklyn bank in order to get enough money to pay for surgery for the love of Sonny’s life. In real life, these two men were John Wojtowicz and Sal Naturile. Onstage they’re played by Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, actors who in real life are also self-described best friends.
But the Broadway mounting is less a suspense thriller and more of a heartfelt comedy — as audiences watch Sonny and Sal’s bank robbery turn into a bumbling affair. What was supposed to be an in-and-out job becomes a hostage situation — with Sonny and Sal keeping the bank’s employees inside the branch. But that turns into more of a coffee klatch than a life-threatening condition, as Sonny’s congeniality shines.
“Dog Day Afternoon” began previews on March 10 before officially opening on March 30. Broadway News spoke to star Bernthal about his experience playing Sonny five weeks into the run (which ends on July 12) to hear about how the play and his performance have grown.
