Lily Rabe on the Family Fireworks of Other Desert Cities

After more than a decade, Lily Rabe is returning to Broadway. The American Horror Story mainstay and Tony nominee stars alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, Allison Janney and Joe Keery in the hotly-anticipated revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s play Other Desert Cities. Rabe plays Brooke Wyeth, a writer who returns to her politically connected parents' Palm Springs home with a memoir that risks exposing familial truths.

“I think it’s surprising and very funny and very moving,” says Rabe of the play. “The way that Jon Robin Baitz has crafted these characters and this family and the dynamics and the mess of what it is to have this kind of intimacy and secrets, I think everyone will have so much to hook on to.”

Rabe was first introduced to Other Desert Cities during its initial run in 2011. “I saw this play twice. I saw this play off-Broadway and I saw this play on Broadway 16 years ago. I had done a play with Judith Light who did it on Broadway, and so I went to see her, of course. We are very close,” shares Rabe. “I sat in her dressing room on the floor and she was sitting on her little couch and I was on my knees and she had my hands in her hands and she said, 'If they ever revive this play, you have to play this part.'"

From Light’s lips to God’s ears! Speaking to the character she was fated to play, Rabe says, “She has had one successful novel and she hasn't been home in six years. There's a lot of tension. There's a lot of political tension. She's very left, her parents are very right. She's had a rough period of time and has gotten herself standing again and comes back for Christmas and tells the family that she has written a book, but the book is not a novel as it was originally going to be. It's a memoir about their life.”

Brooke’s manuscript serves as the catalyst for a series of confrontations, spats and searing truths amongst a group of people whose political allegiances run the gamut. “I was talking to someone who was at our invited dress and they were saying at every turn you are rooting for someone else,” says Rabe. “You really do root for everyone and you can turn on everyone. I think the way that [Baitz] has built the play and built these relationships is really astonishing. I'm so excited to get to just run it and run it because it is one of those plays that just keeps opening itself up.”

Creating a family dynamic with her castmates has come naturally for Rabe. “I have a history with Ed. We had worked together before and I feel so connected to him. We've had some past lives together or something—just that immediate comfort and that shorthand and that familiarity that you don't have to work for, it's just there. And I have really felt that with the rest of the cast too,” she says. “It's been such a joy to get to dive into this play with this group of people. Allison Janney has always been one of my favorite actresses. Working with her is unparalleled. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, I worship her. She's such a tremendous actress. She's obviously a brilliant comedian, but I think there's nothing she can't do. I love playing her daughter. I met [Joe Keery] for the first time when we did the photo shoot for the poster and I immediately felt like he was family.”

“I think gifting this play to audiences during this moment in time is something that will be comforting and inspiring and galvanizing. Jon Robin Baitz is one of our greatest living playwrights. He saw the future then and he's still seeing it,” says Rabe. “But what I love so much about the play is even though there's so much in it that is really devastating, there is a hopefulness in it too—for all of the characters, and I think for the audience.”

Other Desert Cities is now in previews, opening October 18 at the Hudson Theatre. Get tickets!