Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men Reopens the Case on Broadway

Aaron Sorkin's military courtroom drama A Few Good Men opened October 29 at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, with Tom Blyth making his Broadway debut as Lt. Daniel Kaffee. Bradley Whitford and Krysta Rodriguez star alongside him, in a revival directed by Tony winner Michael Arden.

Broadway.com spoke to the stars, Sorkin and Arden on the opening-night red carpet. Their comments covered the play's Broadway beginnings, changes to the script, and the questions the drama raises for a modern audience — three threads worth pulling apart.

What did Sorkin say about the cast?

Sorkin was 28 when A Few Good Men first opened on Broadway. On this revival's opening night, he praised not just the leads but the whole company.

"This is a fantastic cast of 21 actors. And not just the leads — who are giving thunderous performances in this play — all 21 of them," Sorkin said. "There are [seven] actors in the play who are making their Broadway debuts, which is really exciting. But they are fiercely dedicated to the play and you can see that in their performance."

The numbers tell a story of their own. Seven debut-makers out of 21 actors means a full third of the cast is stepping onto a Broadway stage for the first time. For a revival of a play this well-known — the source of the film and of one of American drama's most quoted courtroom confrontations — Sorkin is framing the production around fresh talent rather than star machinery alone.

Why does Blyth's debut matter to Whitford?

Whitford's connection to the role runs deep. He stepped into the part of Kaffee during the original run, so watching Blyth take it on carries personal resonance.

"I really feel like playing Kaffee made me a much better actor, because it was the first time [I was on Broadway]," Whitford said. "I see Tom realizing, 'Oh, yeah, I can hold an audience…"

The quote cuts off, but its shape is clear: Whitford sees his own trajectory repeating in Blyth. The role, in his telling, functions as a kind of apprenticeship in commanding a live house — the specific skill of holding a Broadway audience that screen work doesn't teach. Blyth, best known for screen roles, is now getting that same education in real time.

That's the torch-passing at the core of this revival. A 1989-born play, a playwright who wrote it at 28, and a lead role handed from one generation of actors to the next.

What does this change for the play?

The red-carpet conversations also touched on script changes and the questions the play raises today — Sorkin's drama about military justice, chain of command and accountability keeps finding new audiences, and the creative team has engaged with what lands differently now.

With a 21-actor company, a Tony-winning director in Arden, and a headline cast of Blyth, Whitford and Rodriguez, the production now settles in at the Vivian Beaumont, where its run will test whether a courtroom drama about honor and obedience can again fill one of Broadway's largest houses.