Broadway will get its first revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s Tony-winning play Other Desert Cities this fall at the Hudson Theatre, with performances set to begin September 29 ahead of an October 18 opening night. The limited engagement will continue through January 17, 2027, with Tony winner John Benjamin Hickey at the helm.
Hickey has assembled a starry cast for the production, with 11-time Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus set to make her Broadway debut as Polly, opposite Ed Harris as Lyman, Oscar winner Allison Janney as Silda, Joe Keery (Stranger Things) as Trip, and Lily Rabe as Brooke. Casting is by Jim Carnahan.
The play—which premiered Off-Broadway via Lincoln Center Theater in 2011 before transferring to Broadway the same year—centers on a writer in a family with opposing political views who is threatening to publish a tell-all memoir exposing a long-held family secret. The work was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prizer for Drama.
“I had, more or less, talked myself out of imagining Other Desert Cities back in New York. But John Hickey is family to me, and I trust him completely. We go back longer than I ever imagined: he hears a play—its ideas, its feeling, its music—with an intelligence and knowingness that anchors a room,” says Baitz in a statement. “And with this company of actors a playwright dreams about, I thought that if there were still something alive in it, they would find it. What’s slightly unnerving is that nearly 20 years later, through all the fractures and divisions, the questions remain the same: how to live with who we are and what we’ve done and call that a life.”
“I have loved Robbie’s plays since he began writing them,” adds Hickey. “I acted in two of them early in my career, and when I recently revisited Other Desert Cities, I was stunned at how relevant the play remains, maybe now more than ever. It’s an incredibly funny, surprising, and heartbreaking play about an American family. OUR American family. To be able to bring it back to Broadway, with this powerhouse ensemble of actors, and incredible creative team, is a dream come true.”
The upcoming staging will feature scenic design by Scott Pask, costume design by Tom Broecker, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design and original music by Mikaal Sulaiman, and hair and wig design by Robert Pickens. Richard Hodge will serve as production stage manager.
ATG Productions, Bad Robot Live, Gavin Kalin Productions, Kristin Caskey, and Bee Carrozzini and Mike Isaacson are producing, with Samuel Dallas of Envoy Theatricals serving as general manager.
A ticket pre-sale for Amex card holders will begin May 27 at 10 AM ET. General sales will begin June 3 at 10 AM ET at OtherDesertCitiesBroadway.com.
