Aaron Sorkin's courtroom drama "A Few Good Men" opened on Broadway for the first time since its 1989 debut on Oct. 29, and the reviews that followed over the weekend read like notices for two different productions. Lincoln Center Theater's revival, staged at the Vivian Beaumont Theater and directed by six-time Tony winner Michael Arden, stars Bradley Whitford as Col. Nathan Jessep and Tom Blyth, making his Broadway debut, as Lt. Daniel Kaffee. Krysta Rodriguez plays Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway.
The production began previews Oct. 8 and is booked for a 13-week limited engagement through Jan. 10, running about two hours and 35 minutes with one intermission. It marks the first Broadway revival of the play in the 37 years since it premiered, a run that made Sorkin's name before he turned to television and film.
A role that comes full circle
Whitford's casting carries its own backstory: he appeared in the original 1989 Broadway production, playing Lt. Jack Ross, a generation before stepping into the role of the hard-charging Marine colonel accused of ordering a hazing that killed a private at Guantanamo Bay. Sorkin's script, later adapted into the 1992 film starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, was the playwright's own Broadway debut.
That history is part of what made the revival one of the most closely watched openings of the fall season, alongside a starry run of other return engagements at Lincoln Center this year.
Critics can't agree
Time Out's Adam Feldman gave the production three stars, calling it "handsome and straight-backed" and praising its use of the Beaumont's deep stage, while concluding that "the production may not generate much excitement, but it earns a respectful salute." He was unconvinced by Whitford's Jessep, writing that the actor "captures his arrogance, but not his fearsome righteous conviction," and found Sorkin's dialogue unremarkable next to his later work: "This is his training play, and it's accordingly basic."
New York Theatre Guide's Amelia Merrill was harsher, faulting what she called Arden's "lackadaisical direction" and describing Whitford's climactic breakdown as "out of place, unrealistic, almost nonsensical." She did single out Blyth as "a convincing hero, well-spoken and pretty," even as she flagged some of Sorkin's courtroom banter as "quippy, old-fashioned misogyny" that sits oddly against the play's critique of military culture.
The Wrap went further still, dismissing the play itself as "a creaky old script" and arguing that its central legal twist — a subordinate's convenient death clears the way for the defense — is a plot device the review likened to something Agatha Christie would have discarded between her first and second drafts. The review suggested Arden, better known for musicals, "has substituted singing with lots of yelling from his actors."
Variety was the outlier among major outlets, filing a markedly warmer notice that credited Arden's staging with giving the courtroom drama fresh urgency and praised how the production foregrounds Galloway's position as an outsider fighting to be taken seriously inside the Marine hierarchy. Audiences, for their part, have sided more with Variety than with the skeptics: Show-Score tallied an 84% audience approval rating from 51 reviews, well above the critical consensus.
The split reception is unlikely to hurt a limited run with built-in star power and a recognizable title; Lincoln Center Theater's subscriber base has filled houses for shakier reviews before. Whatever the critics decide among themselves, "A Few Good Men" continues at the Vivian Beaumont through Jan. 10, with tickets for the holiday weeks already moving briskly.
