Aaron Sorkin Once Again Handles the Truth in Timely ‘A Few Good Men’

Long before Aaron Sorkin took on the tech bros — before there were tech bros to take on, in fairness — the playwright and screenwriter, best known for his work in television and movies, including “The Social Network” and the recently released “The Social Reckoning,” set his sights on the military.Mr. Sorkin gained attention back in 1989 with his first Broadway outing, “A Few Good Men,” a courtroom drama following the trial of two young Marines accused of murder whose lawyers unearth a cover-up. Mr. Sorkin adapted the play for a feature film, released in 1992 with a cast led by Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, and Jack Nicholson, who got to bellow out what has become one of the most famous retorts in cinema: “You can’t handle the truth!”That line has been retained, naturally, for the first Broadway revival of “Men,” now running at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater. But Mr. Sorkin told reporters at a press conference earlier this month that he has given the show a “dialogue polish,” and asked director Michael Arden — best known for his vibrant work in musical theater, which earned him Tony Awards for a 2023 revival of “Parade” and the following season’s “Maybe Happy Ending” — to approach his breakthrough effort as he would a new play. In a recent interview in Variety, Sorkin and a few principal cast members opined on what they saw as the play’s fresh relevance, referencing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and what British actor Tom Blyth, one of the stars, described as America’s “reckoning about war and masculinity.”Of course, that reckoning did not suddenly spring up with the second Trump administration, or the first, and concerns like bullying and misogyny, and the potential conflict between following orders and preserving moral integrity, were core to the initial appeal of “Men” and have been to its lasting resonance. The play’s plot, characters, and themes remain intact, and if they nod to tropes more associated with conservative politics, that’s because those tropes tend to align more with military culture.Any polish that Mr. Sorkin has added, moreover, just takes the play further in the direction that made “Men” so attractive to film producers in the first place, and has made the author such a successful screenwriter since: His characters speak like smart people (who like to hear themselves talk) in a Hollywood movie. Sorkinism, as it has come to be called, generally emphasizes cleverness over depth, with monologues that can veer into speechifying.That style has, admittedly, suited many of Mr. Sorkin’s settings — a newsroom, the White House, Silicon Valley — well enough, and it remains a good fit for a play that tracks the preparation for and verbal battle during a court-martial. And Mr. Arden has clearly, and wisely, guided his actors and other collaborators to lean into the text and the overall flavor of this piece.Composer Gabriel Mann, a member of the rock band The Rescues, who worked with the director in last season’s bombastic musical “The Lost Boys” and has also written scores for television, has provided sober orchestral music that sets the tone, suggesting a screen epic. We arrive on the naval base at Guantanamo Bay —in 1989, before that location became the subject of international controversy —to meet two young officers accused of murdering a colleague.Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson and Private First Class Louden Downey soon find themselves in Washington D.C., their case assigned to a junior-grade lieutenant with practically no experience as a lawyer. That would be Mr. Blyth’s character, Daniel Kaffee, who has established a grudging partnership with one Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway, a higher-ranked officer and more practiced attorney who wanted his gig but has had to settle for playing second fiddle. Naturally, Joanne, portrayed here by musical theater veteran Krysta Rodriguez, is introduced as the tougher and more committed of the two, although Daniel evolves after a whiff of corruption surrounding the case grows stronger. That stink can be directly traced to Lieutenant Colonel Nathan R. Jessep, Mr. Nicholson’s role on screen, played in this staging by Bradley Whitford, a multiple Emmy Award winner for his work on Mr. Sorkin’s “The West Wing” and other series.Mr. Whitford delivers a compelling portrait of overblown machismo and ambition that can seem by turns callous and deranged. He can be funny, too, particularly when the colonel is dealing with his often obsequious inferiors, among them a buffoonish, Bible-quoting first lieutenant named Jonathan Kendrick, played with appropriate bluster by John Zdrojeski. Mr. Blyth and Ms. Rodriguez bring vigor and wit to roles we’ve many times in various incarnations: The swaggering young hot shot, almost always male, who must be humbled before his fundamental decency can be revealed, and the righteous woman who can seem abrasive, but largely because she’s tired of being disrespected.If “A Few Good Men” hasn’t exactly gained profundity, it still, in the hands of these performers, provides crackling entertainment — and raises questions that are at least as timely today as they were 37 years ago.

Aaron Sorkin Once Again Handles the Truth in Timely ‘A Few Good Men’

Aaron Sorkin Once Again Handles the Truth in Timely ‘A Few Good Men’

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