Due to the colder winter this year, most folks have experienced winter kill on old wood for macrophylla varieties. You can wait longer to see if it is truly dead or just cut it and be done with it. I've cut mine a couple of weeks ago that looked pretty dead. Once in a while I might have cut into green wood but that is okay too - there is always next year for the ones that only bloom on old wood.

I found some green stems that are not leafing out yet and giving them until the second half of May to decide what do they want to do. But the pruners are ready to do their thing if there is no leaf out but then.