Sunlit Rooms, Julia Louis-Dreyfus Opens Other Desert Cities on 44th Street

The house in Palm Springs is all glass and sunlight. That is the problem. Nothing in it can hide.

On Sunday, October 18, Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities officially opens at the Hudson Theatre, 141 West 44th Street. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Polly Wyeth and Ed Harris plays her husband, Lyman. Allison Janney, Joe Keery and Lily Rabe complete the five-person company, according to Playbill's production page.

It is a Broadway debut for Louis-Dreyfus, and for Keery too, as the critic Jonathan Mandell notes on New York Theater. John Benjamin Hickey directs.

A Family at War Over a Book

The setup is simple and sharp. It is Christmas Eve at the sunlit Palm Springs home of a politically connected family. A daughter comes back with a memoir that could expose a secret the family has kept for years, per Playbill's synopsis.

Rabe plays that daughter, Brooke. Janney is Silda Grauman and Keery is Trip Wyeth. Playbill frames the evening as a fight over memory, loyalty and legacy, and over who gets to tell a family's story.

The play has been here before. It began Off Broadway at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater in early 2011 and opened on Broadway at the Booth that November 3, Mandell recalls. Stockard Channing and Stacy Keach played the parents. The production earned five Tony nominations and won one, for Judith Light. Playbill adds that the play was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

What the Critics Said in 2011

Mandell has reposted both of his reviews from that first year, and they read as a warning and a promise. In February 2011, reviewing the Off Broadway production, he called the acting extraordinary and was cooler on the script and its late twist.

"The precision of these performances is what makes 'Other Desert Cities' worth watching even when it's not worth listening to." Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater, on the original 2011 Off Broadway cast

When the play moved to Broadway that fall with two cast changes, his November 2011 review held the line. The play "remains rewarding because of the performances," he wrote.

Those lines describe a different cast, 15 years ago. This revival has bet its evening on the same point, with a bigger set of names. Reviews of the new production will come after Sunday's opening.

The Numbers So Far

The public has not waited for the critics. Over its first seven previews, the revival took in $1.88 million and played to full houses, Playbill reported, missing The $2 Million Club by a hair. Only Hamilton grossed more on Broadway that week.

The next week, its first with eight performances, it crossed the line. Playbill's grosses page puts the week ending October 11 at $2,157,355 with every seat sold. The average ticket price across the run so far is $276.26, as of that date.

Scott Pask designed the sets, Tom Broecker the costumes and Natasha Katz the lighting, with sound and original music by Mikaal Sulaiman, per Playbill.

What to Know Before You Go

The run is a 16-week limited engagement that ends Sunday, January 17, 2027, BroadwayWorld reports. The show runs two hours and 15 minutes with one intermission, per Playbill.

There are cheaper ways in than the average. A digital lottery through Lucky Seat and a digital rush through TodayTix sell $49 tickets, Playbill reports. Lottery entries open at 10:30 a.m. the day before each performance, and rush seats go up at 9 a.m. on the day.

The 7 p.m. performance on January 3, 2027 will benefit the Entertainment Community Fund, with all ticket proceeds going to the charity, according to Playbill. Tickets for that night go on sale at a date still to be announced.

We first met Polly before previews began, in A Matriarch at the Hudson. On Sunday she finally faces the critics.

The glass house is lit. Now everyone gets to look in.