The Tamesis
On a sultry day in August 1972, Sonny (Jon Bernthal) and Sal (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) decided to rob the Chase Manhattan Bank in Gravesend. The theme of their story is dog day afternoon— an adaptation of the 1975 Sidney Lumet film, itself based on a real-life botched bank robbery — opened on Broadway Monday night to packed theaters and an electric atmosphere.
On the first real day of spring in New York, theatergoers lined up outside the August Wilson Theater. Some adopted a ’70s approach to dressing, swooping in Missoni herringbone dresses. NYPD officers were on hand to monitor traffic flow, though nowhere near as many as the movie boasts, and the likes of Rami Youssef, Marty Matheson, Don Cheadle, Michael Urie and Julianna Canfield were also on hand.
The show, written by acclaimed playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, marks the Broadway debut of Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach, who formed a partnership over their roles on the FX drama. Bear. Gilgeous, who is adapting the production from Frank Pierson’s Oscar-winning play, reportedly stayed up all night during previews to make final tweaks to the script – and despite reportedly tense atmosphere offstage, the night’s drama remained onstage only.
Guirgis’s adaptation was largely faithful to the film, in some cases even more faithful to real-life events than the film. While lacking some of the intense conflict that makes on-screen confrontations feel downright painful, Theater Fridge still gets the characters’ emotions (and voices) sizzling hot, showing just how unprepared Sonny and Sal are when it comes to pulling off a high-stakes crime.
In this version of the story, Sonny’s motivations remain unclear in the first act. He is the director and performer of the operation, while Sal is a socially awkward but sympathetic assistant whose tendencies waver between homicidal and suicidal. Wearing a white V-neck T-shirt with emotion on his sleeves, Bernthal has mastered a showmanship of gauging the severity of his temper by the twitching of his neck muscles. He’s also not afraid to curse like a sailor.
“This is Brooklyn, Colleen,” Sonny reminds him after the branch’s head bank teller (Jessica Hecht) asks him to tone it down, “not Mister Rogers’ neighborhood.”
It’s not until the second act, when the criminal duo are revealed to the press as “openly gay,” that we learn about Sonny’s wife, Leon, for whom Sonny committed this crime. He intended to use the funds not for personal gain but to pay for Leon’s gender confirmation surgery. Moss-Bachrach gives a restrained but emotional performance, uninterested in being called out by the media and defensively blurting out: “I’m not gay, Sonny!”
Like the film – which was considered ahead of its time with Al Pacino’s portrayal of queer men and the inclusion of trans characters – this adaptation seems interested in the political implications of queerness and police brutality. Over the next five years, the topicality of such issues did not diminish, and in one notable instance, Bernthal began shouting “Attica!” (a reference to the 1971 prison uprising that left 43 people dead, mirroring a scene in the film), and much of the 2026 audience joined in.
After the cast bowed to the standing audience, the festivities moved to a spacious event space downtown called “Second,” where guests could enjoy a glass of wine and a slice of Sicilian-style pizza — a themed snack given Sonny’s need for pizza in the original film. Dum-Dums lollipops, a signature bank treat, are also plentiful and stocked in little baskets at each table.
One of the windows looks out onto a courtyard, and a video of co-stars Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach is projected on the building opposite. In this quiet, grainy short film, they dress in period costumes and wander the streets of 1970s New York. Even without sound, they give off the chemistry of fellow criminals—you might even root for a bank robbery.
