‘Other Desert Cities’ Theater Review: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and Allison Janney Fail to Make a Once-Timely Play Relevant Again
A revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s *Other Desert Cities*, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and Allison Janney, revisits a family divided by politics and a long-buried tragedy. The review argues that the play, once sharply relevant to the Bush-era wars and conservative politics, now feels less connected to the present.
Set in 2004, the drama centres on Brooke Wyeth, who returns to her Republican parents’ Palm Springs home with a memoir exposing the family’s past, including the death of her brother Henry. Her parents resist the book, while her younger brother Trip is caught between them. The review sees the family-secret drama as a familiar theatrical form and suggests the production struggles to recover the urgency that helped make the play resonate when it first appeared.
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes her Broadway debut in the revival.
- The play centres on a family memoir and an old tragedy.
- The review says its political urgency has faded.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The revival’s political frame may feel dated because its arguments are tied to the Bush-era wars and the divisions of 2004, while its family-secret plot follows a familiar dramatic pattern. Even a strong cast may struggle to restore the urgency that made the play resonate when those conflicts felt immediate.
The case against
The play’s central conflict is not limited to the politics of 2004: it examines how families manage ideological divisions, grief and competing accounts of the past. A revival can make those questions newly relevant, and its focus on intimate loyalties may still speak to audiences even if the original political context has receded.