Bradley Whitford plays the military villain who utters the play’s famous line in this thrilling production Aaron Sorkin isn’t known for his Dickensian charactonyms, but in the exceptional revival of “A Few Good Men” at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, the name Joanne Galloway stands out. Although the character often goes by the gender-neutral nickname Jo, she is still a gal fighting for respect in a man’s world. Jo’s status as a persevering interloper is underlined throughout the new Broadway production, directed by Michael Arden, an arresting staging of the story best known for its 1992 movie adaptation, starring Tom Cruise and Demi Moore.
The blockbuster legal thriller earned four Oscar nominations, kickstarted Sorkin’s storied career and spawned one of the most recited lines in Hollywood history. (It concerns the truth and whether we can handle it.) That famous quote arrives late in the story, which follows a team of naval lawyers defending a pair of Marines. Harold Dawson (Lavel Schley) and Pfc. Louden Downey (Collin Kelly-Sordelet), are accused of murdering a fellow Marine at their base in Guantanamo Bay.
Joanne Galloway (Krysta Rodriguez) suspects the incident was a hazing ritual gone wrong, and she makes it her duty to badger Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Blyth), the slacker assigned to the case, until he starts taking the job seriously. From the beginning, the production positions Jo as an outsider.
In an early scene, she stands to the side while her male colleagues slouch over a table. Her costuming also signifies division: She’s dressed in white while Kaffee and his associate Sam Weinberg (Nick Blaemire) wear khaki. Later, the sides swap colors.
They only begin matching after they commit to working together as a team. This attention to detail is what makes Arden’s production shine, even as the play itself suffers a bit from the staleness of having sat on a shelf for more than two decades. It’s a sturdy courtroom drama, full of Sorkin’s trademarks: nimble dialogue, brisk pacing and a fascination with moral quandaries.
But the characters sometimes lapse into caricatures. Jo is a mettlesome know-it-all with a strident streak. Kaffee masks his daddy issues and fear of failure with wisecracks and professional indifference.
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