Its a familiar paradigm:

The Yin Yang of Art imitating Life, and Life in turn imitating art. Seinfeld even once pulled the meta-tasticly ironic quadfecta of Art-imitates-Life-imitates-Art-imitates-Life in the brilliant episode #155 known as “The Muffin Top” (The show’s Cosmo Kramer hosts a Jay Peterman reality tour -which is based on Real-world Kenny Kramer hosting a Seinfeld reality tour based on The TV show Seinfeld, which is based on the real lives of Jerry Seinfeld and Kenny Kramer. Whoa.)

In attempting to apply this to the Barefoot Theater’s performance of “Dog Day Afternoon” I found an even more complex display of the spiral: It seems I’ve stumbled upon Art imitating Art imitating Journalism imitating Life. Or is Journalism a bridge between Life and Art? . . . Christ I need an aspirin.

In 1972, two men held up a Chase Bank on Ave P and E3rd st. in Brooklyn NY. What ensued was a bizarre 14-hour Urban Dramedy in which it was discovered that the cause for the hold-up was so that the “mastermind” (if he could be called one) needed money for his male-wife’s sex change.

Only in New York, right? Well, only in Brooklyn to be exact.

The story was unique and fascinating enough to inspire journalist P.F. Kluge to write a feature article in Life Magazine entitled “Boys in the Bank” as if the sex-change bank-robbery weren’t enough, the other factors that simmers in the stifling heat and tension of the summer of 1972 in Brooklyn, seeped through every inch of the Brooklyn streets on that strange, strange day.



The main character Sonny was based on John Wojtowicz; a Vietnam veteran with two children living on welfare. Sonny’s lover Leon (based on John’s real-world lover Ernst Aron) had attempted suicide numerous times and wouldn’t be released from prison until his “gender-identity problem” had been “solved.” Sonny/John thought the only way to help the person he loved was to rob a bank. When Sonny was being interviewed by the news in the midst of the robbery, the reporter asked glibly “if you need money, why don’t you just get a job?” and the glib social commentary doesn’t end there.

To get the crowd riled up, Sonny/John yelled ATTICA! ATTICA! at them, reminding the police and public alike of the Attica prison riots the previous year in which nearly 40 people -prisoners and hostages- were killed with conflicting accounts of who caused the deaths. The crowd, and occassionally the hostages sometimes seemed to trust and sympathize with the men pointing guns at them more than the cops who were trying to save them. As columnist Christoper Null wrote, Dog Day Afternoon perfectly captured “the early 70’s, a time when [national] optimism was scraping rock bottom.”

Okay, so here’s where it gets convoluted. I’ve been talking about the Sidney Lumet’s film based on the article based on real-life events. Now here comes the review of the play based on the movie and article which was based on real events.

And. . . . SCENE:

Barefoot Theater’s Dog Day Afternoon was written (adapted?) and directed beautifully by Frank Solorzano . Frank also starred as Sonny, which I’m sorry to say was a mistake. In the film version, Sonny was played by the immaculate Al Pacino, just after the stunning double-act of Godfather and Godfather II. Pacino’s are some mighty, mighty shoes to fill, and was perhaps distracted by making sure the play was going as intended. Throughout the performance, the most Solorzano could do was attempt to recreate Pacino’s Brooklyn accent, his erratic actions, his confusion, anger and delusion that this could all possibly turn out okay. The result was every line coming off as scripted and flat.

Let’s allow the META sink just one level deeper: In Lumet’s film, Sonny’s dimwitted, morally confused accomplice Sal was played by John Cazale who was Michael Corleone’s dimwitted and disloyal older brother Fredo in the Godfather films. Ready for this? John Wojtowicz claimed that one of his inspirations for committing the bank robbery was from seeing a film earlier that day.

You guessed it. The Godfather. Oy, where’s my goddam aspirin?

Barefoot Theater’s production cast Mr. Jeremy Brena as Sal, and I wasn’t sure if it was the intimidation of filling a role that required such heavy subtly within a deep cycle of pop-cultural undercurrents but Brena also came off as flat and uninspired. I found myself reminded of Michael Showalter from the film The Baxter

What resulted was something of a black hole of a play in which the lead roles came off empty. The enthralling performances of the peripheral characters however -the hostages, the wife, the gay lover, even the pizza boy- were what kept the play solid, stable, and provided the gravity needed to keep the audience engaged.

What was most important and significant in this incarnation of the story is that Barefoot gave us what Lumet didn’t. Through soliloquy, sections of the Kluge article that began the whole dizzying cycle of recreation were explained and that told us more about who these men, but mostly these women were.

The play begins with Elton John’s irresistable ballad Amoreena, but it couldn’t show working class Brooklyn landscapes as can be easily done in film, it shows the tellers, the women discussing their day at the bank. The boredom. The desperation. The dissatisfaction with home-life that Sylvia the head teller (whom Sonny nicknamed The Mouth, played blissfully by Amanda Plant) was feeling. In one of the most brilliant moments in play AND film was when Detective Moretti who was heading negotiations grabs her arm when she steps out of the bank to prove she’s okay, and proving her indepenence, shakes him off. She chooses to go back into the bank with the two lunatics and hold on to the responsibility to look after her girls. She waves to the crowd before going back in.

Which brings us to the most compelling part of this telling of one day in Brooklyn: The Women. The original article may have been titled Boys in the Bank but this was one of many stories in the early 1970s that showed the modern American woman being ignored in light of the sensational Boys in the bank. The scandal of two men in love, the Vietnam War that was sending young American men to death and in some cases, madness.

Solarzano’s play delved deeper into the women, and all of them: Susan Ferrara, Dolores McDougal, Victoria Malvagno, Anika Solveig, Amanda Plant, and Joli Tribuzio played their roles with professionalism, passion, humor and detail that was near flawless.

One more point: John Gazzale who played Sonny’s lover Leon was the only performance that I would say was better than the one in in the Academy Award winning film. Bravo. Every word, expression, and motion during his side of the phone conversation was magnificent. Which I could say the same for Sal on the other side.

Now then. I have just done my duty of writing an article based on a play based on a movie and an article which was all based on a crazy, hot, confusing, hillarious Dog Day Afternoon. . . in Brooklyn.