Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the Cast of Broadway's Other Desert Cities Unpack the Family Secrets

Family secrets refuse to stay buried in Other Desert Cities. Jon Robin Baitz’s play returns Broadway with a cast led by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, Lily Rabe, Joe Keery and Allison Janney. Broadway.com caught up with the company, playwright and director John Benjamin Hickey on opening night to talk about fractured families, unexpected laughs and a play that keeps revealing itself.

“I explain Other Desert Cities as a play about a family, a fractured American family,” says Hickey. As for what the Wyeths are keeping under wraps? “This family has a couple of whoppers.”

For Harris, who plays patriarch Lyman Wyeth, the pleasure comes partly from navigating the tonal shifts. “It's a really interesting play because the whole first part's almost like a sitcom and then it changes, but it's really fun to do,” he says. “Every night something new happens. You just keep trying to go deeper and deeper with it all and we'll see where we end up in a few months.”

As matriarch Polly Wyeth, Louis-Dreyfus is finding her own education in the energy exchanged between the stage and the seats. “I'm learning every single minute,” she says. “That's the truth. That's the beauty of doing theater, is that the intimate connection that you have with the audience is an education. And every night it's a different class.”

Rabe, who plays the troubled daughter, Brooke, has been especially moved by the response. “These audiences are so amazing,” she says. “Being able to hear everyone go on this ride that I think is so personal to people in different ways has been so thrilling and satisfying and moving.”

That sense of discovery extends to Baitz himself. “The pain of the play is more pronounced in a way than it was [in 2011],” he says. “It's the same play and it's beautifully directed and Joe Mantello's [original] production was perfectly and exquisitely and miraculously directed. And yet you come back to it some time later and you're hearing the oboes suddenly.”

Keery plays Trip Wyeth, and the actor uses another metaphor to describe the company’s ongoing exploration. “It's a play that kind of is like an onion. It has so many layers,” he says. “It's like we've been peeling this thing back. And even from three nights ago, I feel like it's continuing to unfold. So it'll be cool to see what happens by the end of the run.”

With so much to unpack, Janney, who plays Polly’s sister, Silda Grauman, hopes audiences leave with something to hold onto. “There are a lot of things people will be talking about when they leave this play, but I hope the main message they get is at the end of the day, all that matters is how much you loved,” she says.

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