‘Other Desert Cities’ opens on Broadway: Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes her debut alongside Ed Harris and Allison Janney

Other Desert Cities has raised the curtain on Broadway: the first preview of the first Broadway revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s play was held on the evening of September 29 at New York’s Hudson Theatre, as Broadway.com reports, with a star cast headed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus — her long-awaited debut on the Broadway stage.

The Seinfeld and Veep actress, a record holder with 11 Emmy Awards, plays Polly, the mother of a politically connected family in Palm Springs, on a Christmas Eve that turns into a battlefield of memories, loyalty and legacy when her daughter comes home with a memoir that threatens to reveal the family’s hidden truth. Alongside her on stage are Ed Harris (Lyman), Allison Janney (Silda), Joe Keery (Trip) and Lily Rabe (Brooke) — Keery, the star of Stranger Things, also marks his Broadway debut.

The production is directed by Tony winner John Benjamin Hickey, while the creative team includes Scott Pask (set design), Tom Broecker (costumes), Natasha Katz (lighting), Mikaal Sulaiman (original music) and Robert Pickens (wigs). Previews continue until the official opening on October 18, while the limited run lasts until January 17, 2027.

Other Desert Cities was first staged Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater in 2011, before transferring to Broadway the same year, and was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This return comes at a moment when the play’s questions — to whom a family’s story belongs and what it costs to tell it — sound more relevant than ever.