Given the cramped Theatre Row venue in which it's being performed, one can't but admire how resourcefully this 16-person ensemble dramatizes the events — character-heavy and action-packed as they are — of the famous 1975 film, even as it inevitably falls short of its classic forerunner.
Based on a 1972 robbery attempt at a Chase bank in Flatbush, with names changed as in the film, this revamp — written and directed by Barefoot Theatre Company artistic director Francisco Solorzano — does prove a viable stage property. Sonny (Solorzano) and his hotheaded sidekick, Sal (Jeremy Brena), try to knock off the branch to pay for a sex-change operation for Sonny's "wife," Leon (John Gazzale). What results is a frenzied standoff between the police and FBI outside and robbers and hostages inside, some bank employees actually relishing the unexpected break from their humdrum work routine.
There are several sequences with overlapping dialogue and impressionistic ambient sounds — the radio and TV reports, the din of the crowd, and even the bank clock's monotonous ticking — quite skillfully emoted by the cast, if sometimes enervating in such a confined space. Less felicitous is the hokey inclusion of a Coney Island barker intended to underscore the sideshow aspects of the stranger-than-fiction events. The narrative begins after the siege, then backtracks to the robbery. There are several striking moments, the poignant telephone scene between Sonny and Leon perhaps the dramatic highpoint.
The ensemble cast acquits itself uniformly well. Gil Ron as Detective Moretti, whose domestic problems provide counterpoint to Sonny's; Joli Tribuzio as Sonny's disbelieving real wife; and Lydia Gladstone as both a distraught employee and Sonny's critical mother all have good moments.
Technical aspects of this ambitious showcase production — which follows a 2007 workshop at the 78th Street Theatre Lab — are pretty basic but satisfactory on the whole.
Presented by Barefoot Theatre Company at the Studio Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St., NYC. July 18-Aug. 16. Thu.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (Additional performance Wed., Aug. 13, 8 p.m.) (212) 279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com.