Can you handle this truth? Aaron Sorkin‘s oft-quoted 1989 courtroom drama is back on Broadway for the first time in nearly four decades — and it features a West Wing reunion. Bradley Whitford has the plum part of Col. Nathan Jessep, the formidable Marine that Jack Nicholson enshrined in cinematic history in the late Rob Reiner‘s 1992 film adaptation.
But Whitford and Sorkin’s relationship dates back to before the Bartlett administration. The actor played a supporting role in the original Broadway staging of A Few Good Men, and also served as the understudy for Jessep’s courtroom opponent, military lawery, Dan Kaffee, played onscreen by Tom Cruise and here by Hunger Games franchie star, Tom Blyth. Krysta Rodriguez rounds out the ensemble as Kaffee’s colleague, Joanne Galloway, and director Michael Arden helms his second screen-to-stage production after bringing The Lost Boys to Tony glory earlier this year.
Obviously, any production of A Few Good Men will inevitably be compared to Reiner’s film, especially the delivery of one key line immortalized by Nicholson’s Oscar-nominated performance. And many of the critical reactions to this staging, which had its opening night at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater on Thursday and runs through Jan. 10, put those comparisons front and center. And the tenor of reviews amounts to a hung jury as critics can’t entirely come to a common consensus about the show.
Leading the defense is USA Today, where Patrick Ryan says that Arden “breathes new life” into Sorkin’s play.
“The play’s first stretch gets bogged down by incessant table-setting, both narratively and literally,” the critic acknowledges. “But the production soon shifts into high gear as Kaffee trades barbs with the whip-smart Joanne Galloway, who has been reluctantly assigned to work alongside him. Together with congenial co-counsel Sam Weinberg, the delightfully ragtag trio rips past the red tape to uncover nefarious military dealings, all while batting Sorkinisms with the dazzling might of major-league sluggers.
“A Few Good Men is hardly the most provocative or audacious play running in New York, nor does this clear-cut revival blow the dust off to reveal an urgently timely artifact,” Ryan concludes. “But if you’re hankering for a smart piece of entertainment that also goes down easy, you’d be foolish not to grab a ticket — and that’s an order.”
The Independent‘s Caitlin Hornik is also on the pro side, with particular praise for Rodriguez. “As the sole female principal, Rodriguez drives the production,” she writes. “Her plucky Galloway is loaded with charisma and gumption — and a consistent refusal to accept ‘no’ as an answer. She pokes and prods, unrelenting in her pursuit of the truth. Honestly, it’s exhausting to watch her jump through hoops and repeatedly justify her belonging in these rooms. But Rodriguez more than holds her own against the cast of men; it’s delightful to see this musical theater darling show off her acting chops.”
Meanwhile, Deadline‘s Greg Evans cuts right to the chase in his mixed review, getting straight to the line of dialogue that everyone wants to know about. “When it arrives on stage — it being “You can’t handle the truth!,” one of the most famous bits of dialogue in movie history — the phrase feels both very, very familiar and ever so slightly tossed off, maybe even rushed,” he observes, later noting: “When Blyth’s Kaffee demands the truth, he skips Cruise’s sputtering delivery for a more conversational tone… though Whitford’s delivery of the punchline… is as forceful as it needs to be. All in all, the famous exchange is less histrionic than we might remember.”
But Evans does have praise for Whitford’s interpretation of Nicholson’s role, writing: “Best known for his earnest politico Josh Lyman in Sorkin’s The West Wing, Whitford here turns zealous and mean, his Colonel Jessup ruthlessness incarnate, intractable and convinced of his own indispensable value to society and order. Whitford’s barreling performance gives A Few Good Men a worthy villain, combining a blindered worldview with self-serving careerism that makes for a depressingly recognizable monster.”
Over in Time Out New York, Adam Feldman says that the revival reveals that A Few Good Men is ultimately Sorkin’s “training play,” and one that doesn’t adapt smoothly to the present day. “The issues raised by [modern] incidents seem increasingly distant from the deep code of honor that Sorkin is exploring,” he writes, before concluding: “The production may not generate much excitement, but it earns a respectful salute — the proper response to a show whose duties have been discharged honorably, if not with special distinction.”
The Guardian‘s Richard Lawson is more willing to prosecute the production’s perceived failings. “Those in search of crackling drama and sentimentality about the military should just watch [the] film, rather than plunking down a considerable sum of money to see the play in its current form,” he sniffs in his two-star review that labels Whitford “the real sore spot of the ensemble.”
“[It’s] a role that should radiate imperious menace, but in Whitford’s rendition comes across confused and unfocused,” Lawson writes. “Whitford totters around the stage with his legs wide apart, as if he is doing a creaky John Wayne impression. He half mumbles and half growls his lines, a strained simulation of macho might. …It’s a starchy, listless production that never finds a proper sense of scale.”
