'Dog Day' Is No "Afternoon Delight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                      Girls, where do I start?

                                     Let's begin with the August Wilson Theatre.  Over the past several years, it seems I have been in this Broadway theater more than any other.  Three times with "Funny Girl," and then once more with "Cabaret."

                                       And now "Dog Day Afternoon."  Let it stop there.

                                     For reasons understandable to me now, when we got home from this experience, David found the original movie, and we watched it.  What a difference.

                                       The stage adaptation of "Dog Day Afternoon" might have worked, had understatement and empathy been maintained.  And the leads better cast. Granted, no one could surpass Al Pacino or John Cazale, but Jon Bernthal as Sonny and Ebon Moss-Bacharach as Sal are unsatisfactory.  But they are not entirely to blame.  The playwright, Stephen Adly Guirgis (whom word on the street says was barred from rehearsals; I wonder why?) and Rupert Goold have conceived this rather touching story as a sitcom that eventually reverts to the Keystone Kops.  Are you kidding me?

                                           I am getting so tired of seeing movies of note and integrity transferred to the stage so unsatisfactorily.  I dread the musicalized version of "Beaches," because everything good about that film I expect will be missing from the musical.  Except an occasional hearing of "Wind Beneath My Wings."

                                             But back to "Dog Day Afternoon."  One interesting thing having been tweaked is the role of the Head Teller, a minor figure in the film, but who here becomes major thanks to the performance of Jessica Hecht.  Of course, she is playing......well, Jessica Hecht, but she livens up the show with her character's interesting back story--a Brooklyn career spinster with a bird and a cat!  Talk about playing bridge with old maid aunts!  Were it not for Hecht, audience interest would go quickly.

                                               Sadly, the most touching character, Sonny's wife Leon, for whom he commits this robbery to get money for a sex change operation, and who was played so devastatingly in the film by Chris Sarandon (who got an Oscar nomination) is played by Esteban Andres Cruz for laughs and camp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The actors are not entirely to blame--that rests on Guirgis and Goold.  They have taken a first-rate film and reduced it to trash.  What a difference one creative team can make!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                   Lastly, I have to say, girls, that lately David and I have been seeing nothing but crap on Broadway.  Still, I am holding out hope, but come June 7, I feel there will not be enough new show nominees for the TONYS.  It could be all revivals.

                                                     Broadway has always been known as "The Fabulous Invalid."

                                                      So, start getting fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!