Pal Joey’s Matthew Risch to Replace Justin Kirk in Other Desert Cities

Pal Joey star Matthew Risch will assume the role of Trip Wyeth in the Broadway production of Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities on March 27. He replaces Weeds star Justin Kirk, who will play his final performance on March 25. Directed by Joe Mantello, Other Desert Cities is currently running at the Booth Theatre.

Risch has understudied the role of Trip Wyeth since the acclaimed play began its Broadway run, and assumed the role in December when original star Thomas Sadoski left for three weeks to shoot a pilot for HBO. Risch joins a cast that includes his Pal Joey co-star Stockard Channing (who is out of the production until April 6), Elizabeth Marvel, Stacy Keach and Judith Light.

In addition to his starring role in Mantello’s Pal Joey, Risch’s Broadway credits include Chicago and Legally Blonde. His film and TV credits include Sex and the City 2, Gossip Girl, Blue Bloods and Lipstick Jungle.

In Other Desert Cities, once-promising novelist Brooke Wyeth (Marvel) returns home after a six-year absence to celebrate Christmas in Palm Springs with her parents (Channing and Keach), former members of the Reagan inner-circle, her brother (Risch) and her aunt (Light). When Brooke announces that she is about to publish a memoir focusing on an explosive chapter in the family’s history, the holiday reunion is thrown into turmoil.