Order in the Court, Bradley Whitford and Tom Blyth Take A Few Good Men to Lincoln Center
The first Broadway revival of the Sorkin courtroom drama began previews Thursday with a screen star making his Broadway debut
On Thursday night the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center filled with the sound of a military courtroom. A Few Good Men, the first Broadway revival of the Aaron Sorkin play, played its first preview. At the center of it were a TV veteran in the colonel's chair and a young screen actor making his Broadway debut.
BroadwayWorld reported that Lincoln Center Theater marked the first preview on Thursday, October 8. The official opening is Thursday, October 29. The run is limited to 13 weeks and ends Sunday, January 10, 2027.
The Colonel and the Lawyer
Bradley Whitford, the Emmy winner known for The West Wing, plays Lt. Col. Nathan R. Jessep, the Marine commander whose role Jack Nicholson made famous on screen. Entertainment Weekly calls Whitford a Sorkin favorite from that series.
Tom Blyth, who appeared in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, plays the military lawyer Daniel Kaffee, the part Tom Cruise played in the 1992 film. This is Blyth's Broadway debut. Krysta Rodriguez, an Outer Critics Circle Award winner, plays Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway, the role Demi Moore took on screen.
The supporting company includes Stephanie Berry, Nick Blaemire, Michael Braugher, Christopher Gurr, Billy Eugene Jones, Collin Kelly-Sordelet, Shunté Lofton, Michael Oberholtzer, Lavel Schley, Thom Sesma, Daniel Velez and John Zdrojeski, along with an ensemble and four understudies.
A Return After Decades
The play opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in 1989, according to Entertainment Weekly. It was then turned into the Rob Reiner film. Despite several other stagings since, EW says this production is the first Broadway performance since the original. BroadwayWorld calls it the first Broadway revival.
The story follows the court-martial of two U.S. Marines accused of the murder of a fellow soldier at Guantanamo Bay, and an attempted high-level cover-up, Playbill writes. Playbill adds that Nicholson's delivery of the climactic line on screen, "You can't handle the truth," has become one of the best-known and most quoted movie lines in theater and film history.
Michael Arden, a Tony-winning director, leads the new production. Entertainment Weekly says he comes to it fresh from his success with The Lost Boys. He described Sorkin's text to the magazine as a playground of ideas and arguments.
"Working with Bradley, Krysta, and Tom on this play is truly an embarrassment of riches for a director," Arden told EW.
Behind the Table
The design team includes Dane Laffrey on scenic design, Alejo Vietti on costumes, Japhy Weideman on lighting and Joshua D. Reid on sound. Gabriel Mann wrote original music, and Ricky Ubeda is movement director. Lincoln Center Theater produces in association with No Guarantees Productions, Tom Kirdahy, Kevin Ryan, Lamar Richardson and Mary Sullivan, according to Playbill.
For New Yorkers who follow Sorkin's career, it is a busy season. His new Facebook film, The Social Reckoning, had its U.S. premiere near Union Square on October 4, and now his oldest hit returns to the Lincoln Center campus.
Previews run for three weeks before the official opening on October 29. The bigger question is whether a courtroom drama built on one famous line can find a new reading in a new decade. On Thursday night, at least, the company gave it a first try in front of an audience.
