Verdict at the Beaumont, Critics Split on Tom Blyth's A Few Good Men
The Broadway newcomer draws a rave and a shrug in the same morning as Lincoln Center's Sorkin revival opens on West 65th Street through January 10
A Few Good Men opened on Broadway on Thursday, October 29, at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, and the critics agree on one thing only. Tom Blyth, making his Broadway debut as the Navy lawyer Daniel Kaffee, is the reason to talk about it.
After that, the verdicts scatter. One critic calls Blyth brilliant. Another calls the whole evening creaky. Most land somewhere in the long middle, which is where a 37-year-old courtroom drama tends to live.
The production is Lincoln Center Theater's first Broadway revival of Aaron Sorkin's 1989 play, directed by Michael Arden, with Bradley Whitford as Col. Nathan R. Jessep and Krysta Rodriguez as Lt. Cmdr. Joanne Galloway. It runs a strictly limited 13 weeks, through January 10, 2027, according to BroadwayWorld's review roundup.
What Did the Critics Say About Tom Blyth?
Blyth gets the warmest notices of anyone on the stage. Patrick Ryan of USA Today calls him "blow-your-hair-back brilliant in his unmissable Broadway debut" and writes that he "rivals Cruise with his sheer magnetism and dexterous mastery of Sorkin's language."
Not everyone is that taken. Robert Hofler of TheWrap reads his Kaffee as "the epitome of nonchalant white male privilege." Adam Feldman of Time Out New York settles on a physical description, noting that Blyth "has a boyish face atop a manly body."
Jonathan Mandell of New York Theater points out that Blyth is best known for a starring role in a Hunger Games film. In his reading, the role travels from insecurity to a lawyer who finally takes the job seriously.
"Blow-your-hair-back brilliant in his unmissable Broadway debut." Patrick Ryan, USA Today, on Tom Blyth
How Does Bradley Whitford Play Jessep?
Quietly, and that is the debate. Whitford has history with this play. He understudied Kaffee in the original 1989 Broadway production and later took over the role, BroadwayWorld notes. Now he plays the colonel on the other side of the witness stand.
Ryan writes that Whitford "intriguingly underplays the menace of Col. Jessep," though he adds that the choice sometimes "dulls the character's power." Feldman puts it more bluntly. "Whitford captures his arrogance, but not his fearsome righteous conviction," he writes. Mandell says Whitford "seems better suited for a drily witty regular guy than a fearsome, humorless martinet," and admits that years of The West Wing may color his view.
Hofler goes further than either and calls Whitford's villain "a God-fearing fascist."
Is the Staging Too Big for the Play?
Dane Laffrey's tall, stark set divides the room. Feldman says Arden's staging "makes strong use of the Vivian Beaumont Theater's deep playing space." Mandell calls the result "a monumentally staged, occasionally riveting, but ultimately unmemorable Broadway revival" and says the scale can swallow the cast.
Hofler is the harshest. "'A Few Good Men' is a creaky old play," he writes, and "the mammoth set, by Dane Laffrey, only highlights the play's weaknesses." Ryan, on the other side, praises Arden's "crackling direction" and Ricky Ubeda's movement work, while conceding that the first stretch is "bogged down by incessant table-setting."
The Scorecard, by Suite 646's Count
We read four of the opening reviews in full. Suite 646's tally, our own reading rather than any outlet's label, comes out like this. USA Today is a rave. TheWrap is a pan. Time Out, at three stars, and New York Theater are mixed. That is one up, one down and two in the middle.
The wider field leans the same way. BroadwayWorld's roundup of 20 reviews averages 59 percent, or 5.9 out of 10. By our arithmetic, that sits just above the midpoint of the scale, which matches the shape of the four we read.
What to Know Before You Go
The Vivian Beaumont is at 150 West 65th Street, and the play runs an estimated 2 hours 35 minutes with one intermission, according to Lincoln Center Theater. New York Theater lists tickets at $114 to $421. Lincoln Center Theater also runs a digital lottery for $49 seats and a $32 student rush at some performances. Playbill's opening-night photos give a first look at the courtroom.
We covered the production when it began previews on October 8. For Arden's other show this fall, see our story on The Lost Boys.
Thirteen weeks is not long. The critics could handle the truth. They just could not agree on what it was.
