Jon Robin Baitz’s acclaimed family drama opens on Broadway with an all-star cast led by Julia Louis Dreyfus, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Lily Rabe and Joe Keery. Directed by Tony Award winner John Benjamin Hickey, the revival brings a compelling story of family secrets, political divisions and Palm Springs privilege to New York’s historic Hudson Theatre.
There is a particular kind of drama that unfolds behind the gates of a beautiful Palm Springs home. The architecture is impeccable, the social standing carefully cultivated, and the family history, at least on the surface, comfortably settled. But beneath the midcentury lines and carefully maintained appearances, the past has a way of demanding attention.
That tension is at the heart of Other Desert Cities, which officially opens tonight, October 18, at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre in New York City. The production is directed by John Benjamin Hickey, an accomplished actor and director who won a Tony Award for his performance in Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. His extensive Broadway career and experience working with playwright Jon Robin Baitz bring a distinctive perspective to this revival of Baitz’s celebrated drama.
For the Coachella Valley, the production offers a welcome moment in the national cultural spotlight. While the desert has long inspired artists, architects, filmmakers and writers, it is less often the central setting of a major Broadway production. In Other Desert Cities, Palm Springs is far more than a picturesque backdrop. It is an essential part of the story.
A Palm Springs Christmas, With Secrets to Uncover
Set during Christmas Eve 2004, the play centers on the Wyeth family, an affluent and politically connected household gathering at its Palm Springs home. Their carefully constructed world begins to unravel when Brooke Wyeth, the family’s writer daughter, announces plans to publish a memoir revealing a painful chapter in their shared history.
Her decision sets off a confrontation over loyalty, truth, family reputation and the right to tell a story that involves other people. Brooke’s parents are determined to protect the family from the revelations, while the gathering exposes long standing differences in political outlook, personal values and how each family member understands the past.
At the center is Polly Wyeth, a formidable conservative matriarch who has spent years maintaining control over her family’s public image. Her husband, Lyman, a former Hollywood actor and U.S. ambassador, brings his own complicated history to the household. Brooke’s younger brother, Trip, finds himself caught between competing loyalties, while Polly’s outspoken liberal sister, Silda, adds another combustible voice to the proceedings.
The result is an intimate family drama infused with sharp humor, political tension and emotional complexity. Its central question extends well beyond the Wyeth household: Who owns a family’s story, and what happens when the truth threatens to change everything?
A Remarkable Cast Takes the Stage
The Broadway revival features five accomplished performers, including two making their Broadway debuts in this production.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Polly Wyeth brings her celebrated comic precision and dramatic range to the formidable family matriarch. Best known for Seinfeld and Veep, the Emmy
winning actress makes her Broadway debut in a straight play with this production.
Ed Harris as Lyman Wyeth portrays Polly’s husband, a former actor and ambassador whose easygoing exterior conceals a more complicated past. Harris’s distinguished career across film, television and theater makes him a natural fit for the layered character.
Allison Janney as Silda Grauman plays Polly’s liberal sister, whose history with the family and contrasting worldview intensify the gathering. A celebrated stage and screen performer, Janney brings considerable dramatic and comic range to the role.
Lily Rabe as Brooke Wyeth plays the writer whose planned memoir threatens to expose the family’s most painful secrets. Her character drives the play’s central conflict, forcing everyone to reconsider what they believe about their past.
Joe Keery as Trip Wyeth, Brooke’s younger brother and a television producer, completes the family ensemble. Known internationally for his role in Stranger Things, Keery also makes his Broadway debut with the revival.
Together, the five performers bring considerable star power to a drama that depends on the chemistry, tensions and emotional vulnerabilities of a single family.
Tony Award Winner John Benjamin Hickey Directs
Hickey brings an impressive combination of acting and directing experience to the production. He won the 2011 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Felix Turner in The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer’s powerful drama about the early years of the AIDS crisis.
His career includes extensive Broadway work, as well as roles in film and television. Hickey also has a longstanding artistic connection with playwright Jon Robin Baitz, having performed in two of Baitz’s earlier plays.
That familiarity with Baitz’s writing makes him a particularly fitting choice to direct Other Desert Cities. The play’s exploration of family loyalty, political ideology and competing versions of the truth has taken on renewed resonance in an era of deep political divisions. Hickey’s approach allows the humor and emotional complexity of the story to coexist, without reducing the characters to simple heroes or villains.
His direction places the focus squarely on the family itself: the affection that binds its members, the resentments that divide them and the painful consequences of deciding which truths should remain private.
The production is playing at the Hudson Theatre, located at 141 West 44th Street in Manhattan. One of Broadway’s historic theaters, the Hudson provides an intimate setting for a drama in which much of the action unfolds within a single family home.
The revival began preview performances on September 29 and is scheduled for a limited engagement through January 17, 2027.
Originally presented on Broadway in 2011, Other Desert Cities earned five Tony Award nominations, including Best Play, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Its return with such a high-profile cast underscores the enduring appeal of Baitz’s writing and the play’s examination of the complicated relationship between private life and public identity.
Why the Desert Matters
For those who live in or know the Coachella Valley, there is an additional pleasure in seeing Palm Springs serve as the setting for a major theatrical production. The city’s distinctive architectural heritage, its history of Hollywood connections and its reputation as a retreat for influential personalities lend the story a recognizable sense of place.
Yet Baitz’s Palm Springs is not simply a portrait of desert glamour. The play uses the privacy and privilege associated with an affluent household to examine the pressures of preserving a family legacy. The beautiful home becomes a setting for uncomfortable conversations, where the past refuses to remain neatly out of sight.
That contrast feels particularly resonant in a region where architecture, lifestyle and image are often inseparable from identity. Behind even the most polished façade, every family has its own history and its own interpretation of what should remain private.
With its accomplished cast, incisive writing and unmistakable Palm Springs setting, Other Desert Cities offers New York audiences a dramatic portrait of a place many already recognize, while inviting them to look beyond its familiar image.
Tonight, as the curtain rises at the Hudson Theatre, the desert takes center stage not as an escape from the world, but as the setting for a story about family, memory, politics and the difficult price of telling the truth.
Performance information: Other Desert Cities is scheduled to play the Hudson Theatre, 141 West 44th Street, New York City, through January 17, 2027. For production details and tickets, visit the official website.
