Broadway: How Excited Are You? : “A Few Good Men”

by Chris Peterson

I should be much more excited about A Few Good Men coming back to Broadway than I am.

I love this play. I love the movie adaptation. There are enough great roles in it that a Broadway revival should immediately have my attention.

And yet...I’m kind of at a six out of ten right now.

The revival begins performances on October 8 at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, with Bradley Whitford playing Lt. Col. Nathan Jessup and Tom Blyth as Daniel Kaffee. Michael Arden is directing, which actually might be the part of this production I’m most curious about.

Whitford is obviously a terrific actor. Anyone who watched The West Wing knows he can handle Sorkin dialogue without breaking a sweat. And Blyth has certainly been building a name for himself.

But I keep looking at this production and waiting for that casting announcement that makes me say, “Okay, now I need to see this.”

It hasn’t happened yet.

If you’re bringing this play back to Broadway for the first time since its original production, I think I expected casting that felt like an event. Right now, Whitford and Blyth feel like good casting. Potentially very good casting. But “good casting” and “I’m buying a ticket immediately” are two different things.

There’s also a chance I’m completely wrong about this one.

So am I excited? Sure.

But for a revival of a play I already love, I expected to be a lot more excited than this. Excitement Level: 6/10

What about you? Is A Few Good Men on your Broadway list this fall, or are you waiting to hear more?