It’s hard not to think there’s something intentional about the timing of bringing Other Desert Cities back to Broadway. Opening about a month after the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and weeks before a critical midterm election, Jon Robin Baitz’s play – revived for the first time – is a post-9/11 story of political divides within a family home. Anxiety-fueled spats, broken relationships, isolation from loved ones, uncertainty about the future: these scenes will, for many, prove all too familiar.
The play, directed by John Benjamin Hickey, is one of the fall’s most highly anticipated productions, largely due to the cast. Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes her Broadway debut as uptight family matriarch Polly Wyeth along with Stranger Things breakout Joe Keery playing her laid back son, Trip. They’re surrounded by stage veterans Allison Janney, Ed Harris, and Lily Rabe (who share four Tony nominations between them), playing Polly's sister, husband, and daughter, respectively. After the death of her older brother, Polly's daughter is looking to publish a memoir. Inevitably, this book poses an active threat to their domestic harmony.
