A lot of testosterone is oozing off the Vivian Beaumont stage, and Aaron Sorkin fans will likely lap it up. Lincoln Center Theater presents the first Broadway revival of A Few Good Men, the military courtroom drama that reached an even wider audience when the 1992 film adaptation, starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore, was released.
Director Michael Arden (The Lost Boys) handles Sorkin’s dense script with a deft hand, navigating a sprawling stage conceived by scenic designer Dane Laffrey as a military airstrip and 20 other locations, brought into focus by Japhy Weideman’s precise lighting.
But what most theatergoers will remember is Bradley Whitford as LtCol Nathan Jessep bellowing that famous line: “You can’t handle the truth!”
Who really gives the orders at Gitmo?
Packed with enough exposition to sink a hostile vessel in Guantanamo Bay, Sorkin’s plot centers on a private’s suspicious death on a U.S. naval base, the servicemen charged with his murder, and the cover-up that eventually puts Jessep and his Bible-quoting lieutenant, Jonathan Kendrick (John Zdrojeski), on the witness stand.
The play’s title references an old Marine Corps recruiting slogan dating back to the Revolutionary War. It took over a century for women to serve in the military in any capacity, and combat roles weren’t opened until 2015. So it’s no surprise that LCDR Joanne Galloway (Krysta Rodriguez), special counsel for internal affairs in the Navy JAG Corps, is more than ready to kick her sensible heel through the military’s glass ceiling.
Rodriguez delivers a caffeinated, propulsive performance as both a thorn in the side of and an intuitive ally to LTJG Daniel Kaffee (Tom Blyth), the affable Navy lawyer assigned to the case. Blyth plays Kaffee as charming rather than commanding. At the same time, Arden subtly (or not so subtly, by also brilliantly casting Stephanie Berry as the military judge presiding over the case) suggests that if more women were in charge, the country might not be in such a political shitstorm.
Or maybe that’s just what I wanted to see. Gabriel Mann’s original music adds pomp and circumstance to the handsome production, further enhanced by Ricky Ubeda’s processional movement. But what I wouldn’t give for fewer men and a few more good women.
It wants better content.
Is ‘A Few Good Men’ worth seeing?
Michael Arden’s handsome revival gives Sorkin’s courtroom thriller all the swagger it can handle, yet the moments that land hardest belong to the woman who keeps outmaneuvering the men in charge.
- Lincoln Center Theater, 150 West 65th Street, New York City
- Notable performers: Bradley Whitford, Tom Blyth, Krysta Rodriguez, John Zdrojeski, Stephanie Berry
- Running time: approximately 2 hours 35 minutes, including one intermission
- Performances through January 10, 2027
