Julia Louis-Dreyfus Takes Broadway in Other Desert Cities

Julia Louis-Dreyfus has spent four decades on television and film, and on Sunday, Oct. 18, she finally opened on a Broadway stage. The 11-time Emmy winner stars as Polly Wyeth in the first Broadway revival of Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities at the Hudson Theatre, alongside Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Joe Keery and Lily Rabe, Playbill reported. The reviews that landed overnight were split on the production but kinder to its leading lady, and BroadwayWorld's running roundup put the average critic score at 71.2 percent.

Directed by John Benjamin Hickey, the revival began previews on Sept. 29 and plays a limited engagement through Jan. 17, 2027. Keery, best known from Stranger Things, is also making his Broadway debut.

The Play and the Part

Other Desert Cities premiered Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater in 2011 and transferred to Broadway the same year, according to Playbill, and it was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It is set on Christmas Eve 2004 in the Palm Springs home of Polly and Lyman Wyeth, a former screenwriter and a former movie star turned Republican ambassador who count the Reagans among their friends.

Their daughter Brooke, a liberal novelist played by Rabe, comes home with a memoir about the family's darkest chapter: the death of her older brother, Henry, after his involvement in a bombing that killed a man. Janney plays Polly's sister Silda, fresh out of rehab, and Keery plays the younger brother, Trip, a producer of a reality courtroom show. In the Los Angeles Times, critic Charles McNulty noted that the role of Polly was originated in New York by Stockard Channing, a comparison that ran through nearly every notice.

What Critics Said About Louis-Dreyfus

The strongest praise came from The New York Times. Helen Shaw wrote that Louis-Dreyfus's "nervy charisma transfers nicely to the theater" and that "what feels like new magic is how in the next moment she can rivet the audience by suddenly seeming tiny and unsteady again." In The Guardian, Juan A. Ramírez called her "impeccable, her turns to iciness genuinely chilling as a study of propriety in action."

People's Dave Quinn wrote that her performance becomes "truly extraordinary" in the second act, and USA Today's Patrick Ryan said few actors "can deliver a daggered punchline with more piquancy." Deadline's Greg Evans found her reading of Polly "no less thoughtful if bit less impactful" than Channing's, with a performance that is "short on the studied patrician steeliness" of the original.

Others were cooler. McNulty wrote that Louis-Dreyfus "works to make Polly relatable" and that "her performance lacks the necessary comic aggression to motor Baitz's comedy." Frank Scheck of New York Stage Review thought she seemed "a bit miscast," scoring big laughs but "not successfully conveying her character's rancorous nature." The Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones saw a generational shift in her softer approach and found that it made "her more nuanced Polly all the more interesting."

Joe Keery Steals Much of the Spotlight

If one name came close to matching hers in the notices, it was Keery's. The Hollywood Reporter's Richard Lawson wrote that "the best acting is done by Stranger Things star Keery." McNulty called his work "the production's most impressive performance," and Ramírez joked that Keery earns "this season's Alden Ehrenreich award for best revelation who should never leave the stage." Scheck named Keery and Rabe "the evening's MVPs."

Harris drew attention for a single scene in which his former-actor character re-creates an old movie death, which Scheck said "brings down the house." Janney was a crowd favorite as well. Entertainment Weekly's Shelby Stivale wrote that just as the play turns heavy, "Allison Janney enters the chat," and Vulture's Sara Holdren listed "every time Allison Janney speaks" among the evening's pleasures.

Where the Revival Falls Short

The production itself took more criticism than its stars. Christian Lewis of New York Theatre Guide wrote that the revival "is under-directed by John Benjamin Hickey, which leaves the actors feeling unmoored." Ryan said the stars "never quite congeal as an ensemble" and pointed to flubbed lines at a recent performance. The New York Post's Johnny Oleksinski called it "discordant," and Matt Windman of AM New York wrote that the show "never makes a convincing case" that the play needed another trip to Broadway.

There were strong defenders, too. Variety's Aramide Tinubu called it "gutting, witty and painfully timely," and The Wall Street Journal's Charles Isherwood praised how Baitz turns "a formulaic if foolproof comedy into something more closely resembling tragedy." Zachary Stewart of TheaterMania called it "a first-rate production, in many ways better than the original," while adding that the revisit "reveals the play's limitations."

Tickets, Box Office and the Run

The starry lineup has already paid off at the box office. Playbill reported that the revival joined The $2 Million Club in its first full week of previews. Price is part of the conversation as well. Showbiz411 quoted Shaw's Times review noting that orchestra seats "go for around $800." The producers include ATG Productions, Bad Robot Live and Bee Carrozzini, according to Playbill.

Showbiz411 also reported that opening night drew a crowd of famous faces, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Bryan Cranston and Kelly Ripa. Deadline lists the running time at 2 hours 30 minutes with an intermission. With the run set to end on Jan. 17, Louis-Dreyfus's first Broadway outing will last about three months.

Sources

Cover photo: Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Julia_Louis-Dreyfus_(34889746851).jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Julia_Louis-Dreyfus_(34889746851).jpg) (CC BY-SA 2.0).