A new Broadway production of Aaron Sorkin's courtroom drama A Few Good Men began performances Oct. 8 at Lincoln Center Theater's Vivian Beaumont Theater, kicking off a 13-week limited engagement that runs through Jan. 10, 2027. The revival, directed by Michael Arden, marks the play's first Broadway return since its original 1989 production and stars Tom Blyth, Bradley Whitford and Krysta Rodriguez.
Performances began on Oct. 8 for the 13-week run, according to lct.org, with the engagement set to close Sunday, Jan. 10, 2027, as reported by broadwayworld.com. Opening night is set for Oct. 29 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, per Variety's coverage of the production. The staging is officially billed as the first Broadway revival of A Few Good Men since it debuted decades ago.
Tom Blyth takes on the role of Lt. Daniel Kaffee, the Navy lawyer at the center of the story, while Krysta Rodriguez plays Lt. Commander Joanne Galloway and Bradley Whitford plays Col. Nathan Jessep, Variety reports. The story follows Kaffee as he defends two young Marines accused of murder and uncovers evidence of a cover-up reaching into the military's chain of command, according to the same account. The play is rooted in a court-martial investigation of two Marines accused of killing a private, Variety notes.
Sorkin Revisits His Own Script
Sorkin revised and polished his original script for this staging, the article notes, sharpening themes he says still resonate nearly four decades later. Sorkin has said the revival leans into illegal orders, toxic masculinity and what he describes as the perversion of religion and Christianity, according to broadwayworld.com. Variety reports the production also foregrounds a search for decency, framed by Sorkin as a question of what it actually means to be decent.
Whitford, who appeared in the original 1989 Broadway cast and now returns as Col. Jessep, told Variety that the play's depiction of extrajudicial killing and unchecked military leadership still hits home. Arden, the production's director, told broadwayworld.com that the show does not feel like a period examination of the late 1980s. He said, “It just feels like it's now and we're still asking the same questions.”
A Fresh Angle on Rank and Gender
The new production also sharpens a gender dynamic embedded in the original story: Galloway outranks Kaffee in the military but is second on the legal team defending the accused Marines, per Variety. That tension, the outlet notes, gives Rodriguez's character new weight within Sorkin's reworked script.
The original A Few Good Men opened at the Music Box Theatre on Nov. 15, 1989, directed by Don Scardino, and went on to run for 497 performances, according to broadway.com. Sorkin later adapted the story into a 1992 film directed by Rob Reiner and led by Tom Cruise, Variety reports, a movie that broadway.com notes grossed more than $141 million and picked up four Oscar nominations.
The production's arrival has also drawn local television coverage: Nancy Lynch, writing for News 12 New York, reported that News 12's Joel Crump spoke with the writer and cast about the revival, which she described as being led by Michael Arden, a Tony Award winner. Lincoln Center Theater describes Arden as a six-time Tony Award winner, while broadway.com describes him as a three-time Tony winner; the two outlets differ on the exact count.
For now, the production is running at Lincoln Center Theater's Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York City, with tickets available through the scheduled Jan. 10 closing date. Between Sorkin's rewritten script and a cast mixing new faces with a veteran of the original run, the revival is positioning itself as both a return to familiar material and an attempt to make its courtroom drama feel urgent for today's audiences.
