It tells the story of military lawyers at a court-martial who uncover a high-level conspiracy in the course of defending their clients, two United States Marines accused of murder.

He was murdered, and the two Marines Lance Corporal Harold Dawson and Private First Class Louden Downey who broke into Santiago's dorm room and attacked him and stuffed a rag into his mouth / throat, will stand trial.

Galloway wants to represent them, but the case is assigned to fellow Navy officer and lawyer Lieutenant (junior grade) Daniel Kaffee, a bumbling attorney who enjoys accepting plea bargain deals and avoiding drawn-out trials / court martials.

Dawson thinks it is dishonorable and a violation of the Marines' strict code of honor for Kaffee to opt for a plea agreement rather than stand their ground in court.

Kaffee in disgust and unable to understand their sense of morals, wants to be terminated from his position as counsel because he believes the case is worthless, that if they're found guilty, that they'll both be sentenced to long prison terms.

Sorkin got the idea for the play from a phone conversation with his sister Deborah, who had graduated from Boston University Law School and was serving a three-year stint with the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps.

Sorkin took that information and wrote much of his story on cocktail napkins during the first act of the musical La Cage aux Folles while bartending at the Palace Theatre on Broadway.

It starred Tom Hulce as LTJG Kaffee; Megan Gallagher as LCDR JoAnne Galloway; Clark Gregg as Lt. Jack Ross; Stephen Lang as Col. Jessup, and Robert Hogan as Capt.

Replacement actors included Timothy Busfield and Bradley Whitford as Lt. Jack Ross (understudy for Kaffee),[10] Perry King, Michael O'Hare, and Ron Perlman as Jessep, and Pamela Blair as Galloway.

A Spanish-language production titled Hombres de Honor opened on January 10, 1991, at the Ferré Performing Arts Center in Puerto Rico, starring Cordelia González and Rafo Muñiz, directed by Pablo Cabrera.

[11] A national touring company performed through 1992 with Michael O'Keefe as LTJG Kaffee, Alyson Reed as LCDR Galloway, and Paul Winfield as the judge.

In January 1993 A Few Good Men had its premiere in German language at the Volkstheater, Vienna, Austria (translation: Gunther Baumann, director: Erhard Pauer, Daniel Kaffee: Alfons Haider).

A revival of the play starring Rob Lowe in the role of LTJG Kaffee, Suranne Jones as LCDR Galloway, and John Barrowman as Capt.

Jensen Ackles appeared as LTJG Kaffee alongside Lou Diamond Phillips as Col. Jessup in a production of the play at the Casa Mañana Theatre, in Fort Worth, Texas, June 5–10, 2007.

June 30, 2016, marked the opening of the Warehouse Studio Theatre production at The Noho Arts Center under the direction of Tony Pauletto and starring K. C. Clyde as Kaffee alongside Dennis LaValle as Jessup and Sarah Klein as Galloway.

In March 2016, NBC announced its intent to broadcast a live television production of A Few Good Men, starring Alec Baldwin as Col. Jessup, in the second quarter of 2018, with a teleplay adapted by Sorkin from his original script.

Variety reported that the availability of Sorkin, Zadan, and Meron may have had an impact, noting that Sorkin had to represent his 2017 film Molly's Game during awards season, while Zadan and Meron (who have produced all of NBC's live musicals) were committed to other projects (such as Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert in 2018, and a later canceled production of Hair in 2019) being produced by NBC in lieu of Bye Bye Birdie, which had been delayed multiple times in order to accommodate Jennifer Lopez's other projects.

[3] In a retaliatory hazing (called a "Code Red"), ten Marines seized Alvarado, blindfolded him, stuffed a rag in his mouth, beat him, and shaved his head.

When he saw the film version of A Few Good Men, he was upset at the liberties taken with the event, most notably that the Marines in the case were dishonorably discharged, and considered suing the filmmakers.