Two new Broadway plays are set in the last decades of the 20th century and based on real events. Both are startlingly relevant, foretelling fissures and fractious issues in our current era. Stephen Aldy Guirgis’s adaptation of Dog Day Afternoon, based on the cult-hit 1975 film about a botched bank robbery, exposes the sharp divide between those in and out of power. Mark Rosenblatt’s Giant, a transfer from London, raises the ever-present specter of anti-Semitism and the seemingly unresolvable, perpetual Middle-East War which has gone by many different names over the years (as well as issues such as censorship, cancel culture, and separating the art from the artist). Both productions are powerful theater and feature blockbuster performances not just from the above-the-title leads but from their entire ensembles.
Jon Bernthal, Danny Johnson, and
Jessica Hecht in Dog Day Afternoon.
Credit: Matthew Muprhy, Evan Zimmerman
Dog Day is a rarity on Broadway for many reasons. It’s based on a popular film and sports a cast of 20, but it’s not a musical. Guirgis’ stage version follows the Oscar-winning original screenplay and fleshes out many of the characters. The story’s strongly anti-authoritarian themes emerges with power but also becomes an electrifying crowd-pleaser.
This dark comedy was inspired by an actual ill-planned bank job which unexpectedly morphed into a media circus. On a broiling summer day in 1972, inept hold-up men Sonny and Sal stumble and fumble their way into a disastrous hostage situation. In a city reeling from near bankruptcy, the twin terrors of Vietnam and Watergate, not to mention the Attica prison riots, the debacle briefly grabbed the public imagination and Sonny emerged as a short-term folk hero. The fact that he was bisexual and his motive for the robbery was to raise the funds for gender-reassignment surgery for his lover added to the quirkiness of the story. (Guirgis downplays the homophobia of the era and makes Sonny more openly gay and proud.) After career-making turns in both Godfather films, Al Pacino cemented his star status as Sonny in the movie version.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal
in Dog Day Afternoon.
Credit: Matthew Murphy, Evan Zimmerman
Thanks to Rupert Goold’s riveting direction, this stage adaptation of Dog Day grabs the audience by the throat and never lets go till the final curtain. The action spills out from David Korins' spectacularly realistic revolving set into the aisles and even up to the balcony of the theater, enveloping the theatergoers into the play’s vise-like grip. Isabella Byrd’s stark lighting, Cody Spenser’s atmospheric sound design, and Brenda Abbandandolo’s period costumes place us right in the midst of that 1970s summer. The details and performances are compelling from the intensity of the hapless bank robbers played with a razor edge by Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach to the terrorized bank employees, especially Jessica Hecht as the fearless, outspoken head teller Colleen to each of the many featured roles.
Bernthal is a master juggler balancing Sonny’s many different objectives—completing the robbery as more and more balls are tossed at him. These include the goof-ups of accomplice Ray Ray (a marvelously rattled Christopher Sears) who runs off after only a few minutes and the erratic behavior of Sal (Moss-Bachrach displaying reams of subtext and a rainbow of emotional colors, all through suggestion and subtlety). Hecht is commanding and complex as the defiant Colleen, conveying an entire lifetime of frustration and disappointment with a wave of her hand or raising her voice a few decibels. Esteban Andres Cruz is a jittery, but sympathetic hot mess as Sonny’s unstable boyfriend. John Ortiz lets us know Detective Fucco has numerous demons on his back, not the least of which is personified with appropriate nastiness by Spencer Garrett as an obnoxious FBI agent. Michael Kostroff, Wilemina Olivia-Garcia, Andrea Syglowski, Paola Lazaro, Elizabeth Canavan, and Danny Johnson deliver memorable, unique characterizations as the bank manager and employees. Dog Day is a gut-punch of a play, stunningly delivered.
The cast of Dog Day Afternoon.
Credit: Matthew Murphy, Evan Zimmerman
Giant also presents a complicated, flawed protagonist and raises a myriad of perplexing questions. Playwright Mark Rosenblatt bluntly takes on the searing specter of anti-Semitism and its poisonous effects on art and everyday life. John Lithgow delivers a towering performance as the author Roald Dahl embroiled in a controversy over his virulent anti-Semitic views expressed in his review of a book of photographs depicting horrific casualties of Israel’s 1983 attack on Lebanon. The backlash threatens the sales of his upcoming children’s book, The Witches. 
Aya Cash and John Lithgow in Giant.
Credit: Joan Marcus
Rosenblatt boils down this witches’ brew of racism, personalities and politics into a single afternoon. He has an American marketing director, Jessica Stone (a fiery and fearless Aya Cash), who happens to be Jewish, arrive at Dahl’s country estate—undergoing renovations which adds to the chaos (Bob Crowley designed the set, symbolizing a disordered and jumbled atmosphere). She is there to “manage” the situation and persuade Dahl to issue an apology, something against which he is dead set. Dahl’s British publisher and friend Tom (Elliot Levey beautifully conveying his torn loyalties), also Jewish, and Dahl’s supportive fiancee Felicity (solid Rachael Stirling) offer their takes, but the main conflict is between the irascible writer and the steely-spined American interloper. Stella Everett and David Manis complete the company as Dahl family servants with their own stakes in the outcome.
Lithgow brings us all the facets of Dahl’s variegated personality. Yes he is bigoted, but also brilliantly witty, compassionate and understanding towards children, as well as spoiled and bullying. One minute he is spewing the most outrageous venom, the next thoughtfully signing a copy of his book for Jessica’s disabled son. Rosenblatt includes Dahl’s despicable anti-Jewish rants, but also the tragedies that have shaped him. One child died young while another suffered brain damage when a taxi rammed into the infant’s pram. He nursed his wife, the actress Patricia Neal, back to health after she suffered a stroke—but then launched a long-term affair with Felicity. Lithgow presents all of Dahl, giving equal weight to his intelligence and his pettiness. It’s exciting and scary to watch Lithgow take aim at Dahl’s targets and gleefully stick in a verbal sword, or raise in twisted anger at being challenged. A giant of a performance.
John Lithgow in Giant.
Credit: Joan Marcus
Director Nicholas Hytner carefully balances Lithgow’s masterful limning with that of the rest of the cast. Tension is built slowly through the well-paced first act to a powerful curtain speech, delivered by Cash, not Lithgow. The second act is equally fraught with explosive emotions, simmering just below the surface, erupting infrequently but at just the right moments. 
Aya Cash, John Lithgow, Stella Everrett,
and Rachael Stirling in Giant.
Credit: Joan Marcus
The events in 1983 involving Israel, anti-Semitism, and the Middle East are repeating themselves today. Rosenblatt’s insightful work ironically reminds us the issues remain unresolved. He presents us with difficult conflicts which is what powerful plays should do.
Dog Day Afternoon: March 30—July 12. August Wilson Theater, 245 W. 52nd St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 20 mins. including intermission. us.atgtickets.com.
Giant: March 23—June 28. Music Box Theater, 239 W. 45th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 20 mins. including intermission. telecharge.com.
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