The Broadway adaptation of Sidney Lumet's 1975 film 'Dog Day Afternoon' has been met with scathing reviews following its opening night at the August Wilson Theatre. The play, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, stars Jon Bernthal as Sonny and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Sal, roles originally played by Al Pacino and John Cazale.
Critics have heavily criticised Guirgis's interpretation, which replaces the film's suspense with slapstick comedy. USA Today's Patrick Ryan called it an 'appalling near-disaster', stating that Guirgis 'seems to fundamentally misunderstand everything that makes the film so unnervingly devastating'. Ryan added that the production 'robs the story of all suspense in favour of broad slapstick and borderline homophobic disdain for its main characters'.
The New York Times' Jason Zinoman noted a reported rift between Guirgis and producer Mark Kaufman, which led to Guirgis being barred from tech rehearsals. Zinoman wrote that the 'undercooked staging does feel like the product of an unresolved artistic dispute'. He also observed that the production 'contains little sense of real threat', with 'amiable comic bickering' dominating hostage-criminal interactions.
The Hollywood Reporter's Richard Lawson described the result as 'a garish disaster of tone and tempo, dull and grating at once'. He lamented that Guirgis, despite his talent for depicting hardscrabble New Yorkers, 'seems quite sour on the people of this story, often mocking them when compassion would be far more effective'.
