Meet the Wyeths: Who’s Who in Broadway’s Other Desert Cities

There’s no place like home for the holidays, especially when your family has secrets. In Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities, a 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist, it’s 2004 and Brooke Wyeth returns to her parents’ Palm Springs home for Christmas after six years away with a new memoir in hand. Her parents would very much prefer that she not publish it. With Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Joe Keery and Lily Rabe gathering around the Christmas tree—or at least having dinner at the club—for the Broadway revival, it’s time to get to know the Wyeths before the family starts unwrapping the past.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus: The Matriarch
You know Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Elaine Benes on Seinfeld and Selina Meyer on Veep. Now, the 11-time Emmy winner makes her Broadway debut as Polly Wyeth, the whip-smart matriarch of the family. A Hollywood Republican and friend of the Reagans, Polly lives in Palm Springs with her husband, Lyman, and has strong opinions about pretty much everything. That includes Brooke’s memoir. Fiercely protective of her family and its reputation, Polly has no intention of letting her daughter tell the Wyeth story without a fight. Christmas cheer, this is not.

Ed Harris: The Diplomat
Four-time Oscar nominee and Tony nominee Ed Harris has played everyone from astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff to artist Jackson Pollock in Pollock. Here, he’s Lyman Wyeth, a former actor turned ambassador, partly modeled on real-life actor-turned-diplomat John Gavin. He’s Polly’s more tactful other half. Lyman would rather keep the peace than pick a fight, but Brooke’s memoir puts him squarely between his wife and daughter. As the family digs into the past, his diplomatic skills get quite the workout. There are some things he’d rather leave in the past.

Lily Rabe: The Memoirist
Tony nominee Lily Rabe, recently seen in The Winter’s Tale at the Delacorte Theatre and known onscreen for American Horror Story, plays the woman responsible for this particularly tense Christmas. Brooke is a writer returning home after six years away, and she hasn’t come empty-handed. She’s penned a memoir about a painful chapter in the Wyeth family history. Brooke believes it’s her story to tell. Her parents very much disagree. With publication looming, neither side seems inclined to budge. The question at the heart of their fight: Who owns a family’s story?

Joe Keery: The Younger Brother
After battling monsters as everyone’s favorite babysitter Steve Harrington on Stranger Things and topping the charts as Djo, Joe Keery makes his Broadway debut as Trip, Brooke’s bright and easygoing younger brother. A reality TV producer, Trip would rather not take sides in the argument consuming the rest of his family. He loves them all and has little interest in revisiting the past. But being the laid-back Wyeth diesn't exempt him from the family drama. Staying out of it, however, turns out to be easier said than done.

Allison Janney: The Insider
Oscar and Emmy winner and two-time Tony nominee Allison Janney returns to Broadway as Silda Grauman, Polly’s sister, who is fresh out of rehab. Funny, forthright and firmly on Brooke’s side, Silda is currently staying with the Wyeths, putting her in a front-row seat for the family's Christmas reckoning. She also knows quite a bit about the family history at the center of Brooke’s memoir and isn't afraid to make her opinions known. When the battle lines are drawn between Brooke and her parents, Aunt Silda knows exactly where she stands. Suffice it to say, she’s not exactly an impartial houseguest.

So much for a peaceful family Christmas. See how it all unfolds in Other Desert Cities at the Hudson Theatre.

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