'Other Desert Cities' review: Broadway's starriest family feud
The Broadway revival of 'Other Desert Cities' features a star-studded cast including Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Ed Harris. The play explores complex family dynamics and ideological clashes within a wealthy Republican family.
Why it matters
This production marks a significant cultural moment for Broadway, highlighting the intersection of political discourse and family drama.
The Wyeth family returns for a phenomenal revival of Other Desert Cities , with standout performances, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Broadway debut. The politics and ideological clashes hit even harder than when the play premiered 15 years ago.
It’s Christmas Eve, 2004, as Polly (Louis-Dreyfus) and Lyman (Ed Harris) welcome their daughter, Brooke (Lily Rabe), a liberal East Coast writer, and their younger son, Trip (Joe Keery), a reality TV producer, to their Palm Springs home. Brooke brings her soon-to-be-published memoir about the family’s eldest child, Henry, whose apparent suicide followed his role in a deadly bombing. Despite skewering her parents in the book (“old-guard Republicans in Hollywood, that odd and very particular subset”), Brooke still seeks their blessing.
Tensions eventually reach every corner of the Wyeths’ affluent, desert-life living room.
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