Michael Arden Revives 'A Few Good Men' on Broadway — SkimNews
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- Michael Arden directs the Broadway revival of Aaron Sorkin's 'A Few Good Men' at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, and the critic credits his staging with making the classic feel newly alive.
- Tom Blyth, known for 'The Hunger Games' franchise, plays Lt. Daniel Kaffee like 'the second coming of Cruise,' even delivering the character's sarcastic 'zip-a-dee-doo-dah' in Cruise's younger register; the reviewer calls him a confident, naturalistic actor.
- Bradley Whitford, who once played Kaffee onstage, now plays Lt. Col. Nathan Jessep, the imperious commander undone by his own hubris; Nicholson originated the role in the 1992 movie.
- Krysta Rodriguez plays Lt. Cmdr. Joanne Galloway, whose white costume contrasts with Kaffee and Weinberg's khaki — the colors swap and finally match only after the lawyers commit to working as a team.
- Marine Corps formations anchor Arden's blocking: the Marines are placed with their backs to the audience and turn downstage only when provoked into speaking candidly, while a flashback under Lt. Kendrick (John Zdrojeski) shows them marching and barking in unison.
- Aaron Sorkin yielded after resisting an earlier revival of the play, which sat on a shelf for more than two decades; the critic calls the timing apt for an era of real-world despots who share Jessep's delusions.
- Tom Cruise and Demi Moore starred in the 1992 film, which earned four Oscar nominations, kickstarted Sorkin's career and spawned one of the most recited lines in Hollywood history — the legacy the revival inherits.
Why it matters: The critic puts craft ahead of moral righteousness: Arden's staging and the turns of Blyth, Rodriguez and Whitford carry a script that, after more than two decades on the shelf, shows its age and blunts Sorkin's moral argument. The gain is a live look at command conformity and the rights of individual service members.
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