Krysta Rodriquez, Tom Blyth (Photo: Emilio Madrid)
By Fern Siegel (posted 11-4-26)
Jack Nicholson made famous A Few Good Men’s iconic line: “You can’t handle the truth.”
The film, based on Aaron Sorkin’s earlier 1989 Broadway play, recalls a real-life Guantanamo Bay Marine incident. A bullied Marine, thought to have reported his squad for firing weapons across the base fence, was the victim of a “Code Red” hazing.
Here, the consequences are deadly.
The revival, now on Broadway at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, features an all-star cast, led by Bradley Whitford (“The West Wing”) and Tom Blyth (“Wasteman”). It also showcases Sorkin’s future calling card: fast dialogue, smart rejoinders and moral imperatives. A young private has died and the question is: Were the two Marines (Lavel Schley and Collin Kelly-Sordelet) who conducted the hazing acting on their own or under orders?
The Navy’s JAG lawyer Joanne Galloway (Krysta Rodriquez) suspects the latter. But she needs to convince lead attorney Daniel Kaffee (Blyth), known primarily as a plea king, and an indifferent co-counsel Lt. Sam Weinberg (Nick Blaemire), of her suspicions. As the case progresses and Kaffee ups his game, the production reveals a fascinating battle between the military’s rigid chain of command — whatever the costs — and the lawyers who inject ethical imperatives into an organization that operates as an entity unto itself.
The point-counterpoint is nicely played out between Kaffee and opposing counsel (Michael Oberholtzer). Each side scores points, revealing both the limits of ideology and the inevitable cover-up that accompanies crime.
Whitford plays the villainous base commander Col. Nathan R. Jessup, but his performance is uneven. By the end of the production, he seems to be channeling Captain Queeq from The Caine Mutiny, another military drama about a dubious leader. The true horror is Jessup’s right-hand man, First Lieutenant Jonathan James Kendrick (John Zdrojeski), brainwashed by Christian nationalism and a strict evangelical fervor. He’s a poster boy for weaponizing zealotry.
Directed by Michel Arden with military precision — opening with a Marine drill — A Few Good Men delivers a thought-provoking drama, framed by dramatic lighting by Japhy Weideman, set by Dane Laffrey and sound by Joshua D. Reid. But since it’s Lincoln Center, and the huge stage doubles as courtroom, barracks and hangar, some of the intimacy of cross-examination is lost.
Still, it’s a theatrical insight into Sorkin’s signature themes, and the solid cast rises to the challenge. At a time when ICE and the Pentagon have made questionable and often catastrophic decisions, the play is a reminder than no person or government branch is above the law.