A Few Good Men review: Aaron Sorkins mediocre courtroom drama is back on Broadway
Two hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission.At the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center, 150 West 65th St.You can’t handle the truth?Actually, the core problem of “A Few Good Men,” Aaron Sorkin’s 1989 play that’s been ceremonially trotted out at Lincoln Center, is that we can handle the truth for a whole two and a half hours.
The truth is revealed early on, we acknowledge its extreme predictability and then said truth is repeatedly discussed by the adjectives — sorry, the characters — all night long.Such is this musty old courtroom drama that resembles a million others with its chatty windbags and zero surprises.This is Sorkin at his most oom-pah-pah, earning cheap applause breaks for self-important lines delivered like asteroid impacts.Director Michael Arden’s ginormous revival has a few good sequences and a few good performances, but “A Few Good Men,” which opened Thursday night on Broadway, has never really been a good play.Of course, there are people who love a bunch of cliche “objection!”s and Sorkin’s portentous dialogue in which every character sounds the same — like the Minions did their undergrad at Stanford.
The film version of “A Few Good Men” was a Best Picture Oscar nominee, and is fondly remembered for Jack Nicholson’s performance as bigfooting Colonel Nathan Jessup.Here the fatigues are donned by Bradley Whitford, Josh from Sorkin’s “The West Wing,” who is one of the production’s pluses.The imposing Whitford innately understands the writer’s pace, smart-aleck humor and curious knack for crafting jackasses, as well he should.Looking like Lorne Michaels went to boot camp, the actor is strong and compelling despite Sorkin turning the Marine officers (John Zdrojeski and Thom Sesma are the others) into “Muwhaha!” villains with no discernible human qualities.
If Whitford’s Guantanamo Bay scenes sound like they’re from “Avatar,” that makes sense.The original actor to play this role, Stephe...