Other Desert Cities
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Cititour.com Review
"Telling the truth is a very expensive hobby." So states a character in John Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities, a scathing family drama which transferred to Broadway's Booth Theatre from Lincoln Center and grew even stronger in the process, despite cast changes. The new ensemble, boasts Rachel Griffiths (in her Broadway debut) and Judith Light. The stunning Stockard Channing, the able-bodied Stacy Keach, and the winning Thomas Sadoski reprise their roles with renewed power, making the play even richer.
Keach and Channing play the Wyeths. He (Lyman), a former actor turned GOP chair and ambassador associated with the Reagan era, and she (Polly), a former screenwriter in partnership with her sister, Silda, (Light). Lyman has a tendency to withdraw while Polly has control issues. Their youngest son (Sadoski), a successful reality TV producer, seems the only happy face in a family of supreme dysfunction. Enter their recovering depressive daughter, Brooke. She's written a family tell-all and the threat of publication is enough to send the entire group into turmoil.
Channing remains the linchpin of the delicate balance created here. Griffiths teeters across emotional chasms with her resolve ever on the wane, while Light, losing her battle with white-knuckle sobriety, quietly wreaks havoc with a master class in the less-is-more school of acting.
The elements at work in Other Desert Cities seem like your average sitcom. Far-right parents clash with far-left adult children with a zany alcoholic aunt thrown in for family hilarity. But the characters Baitz paints are far darker, and multilayered, and the ensemble, led with a sure and deft hand by director Joe Mantello, has settled in with juicy line readings, making for fuller characterizations in an already carefully crafted play. Add in a crisp, white picture-perfect Palm Springs set from John Lee Beatty, careful delicate lighting from Kenneth Posner, and outfits that speak volumes from costume designer, David Zinn, and Other Desert Cities floats with grace among the best of family dramas.
By Lesley Alexander
Visit the Site
http://www.lct.org/showMain.htm?id=208
Cast
Stockard Channing, Rachel Griffiths, Stacy Keach, Judith Light, Thomas Sadoski
Open/Close Dates
Opening 10/12/2011
Closing 6/17/2012
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
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