Lincoln Center Theater has announced that Stockard Channing, Rachel Griffiths, Stacy Keach, Judith Light and Thomas Sadoski will star in its Broadway production of Jon Robin Baitz's critically acclaimed new play OTHER DESERT CITIES this fall. The production, to be directed by Joe Mantello, begins performances Wednesday evening, October 12 and opens on Thursday, November 3 at the Booth Theater (222 West 45 Street).
OTHER DESERT CITIES had its premiere at Lincoln Center Theater last winter where it was an immediate sell out during its limited engagement run at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Winner of the 2011 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play, it was also nominated for multiple Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards, including Best Play.
In Other Desert Cities, Brooke Wyeth (to be played by Rachel Griffiths who is making her Broadway debut), a once promising novelist, returns home after a six year absence to celebrate Christmas in Palm Springs with her parents, former members of the Reagan inner-circle (Stockard Channing and Stacy Keach), her brother (Thomas Sadoski) and her aunt (to be played by Judith 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 and the Wyeths are both bound together and torn apart as they struggle to come to terms with their past. LCT gratefully acknowledges that Ms. Griffiths will appear in Other Desert Cities with the permission of Actors Equity Association.
The Broadway production of OTHER DESERT CITIES will reunite Lincoln Center Theater's original design team: John Lee Beatty (sets), David Zinn (costumes), Kenneth Posner (lighting), Jill BC DuBoff (sound) and Justin Ellington (original music).
With OTHER DESERT CITIES playwright Jon Robin Baitz returned to Lincoln Center Theater where his plays A Fair Country and Ten Unknowns premiered and where his play The Substance of Fire enjoyed an extended run after its original run at Playwrights Horizons. He is also the author of the plays Mizlansky/Zilinsky, The Film Society, The End of the Day, The Paris Letter, and, a new adaptation of Hedda Gabler. He wrote the screenplay for the film People I Know and the film version of The Substance of Fire. His television credits include The West Wing, Alias and Brothers & Sisters, which he created.
Joe Mantello directed the LCT productions of God's Heart and A Man of No Importance. Winner of two Tony Awards for his direction of Assassins and Take Me Out, his credits include Wicked, Pal Joey, November, The Receptionist, Three Days of Rain and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. He most recently returned to acting with an award winning performance in the critically acclaimed Broadway production of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart.
This fall, in addition to OTHER DESERT CITIES and the open-ended run of its Tony Award winning production of War Horse at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center Theater will be producing the American premiere of Blood and Gifts, a new play by J.T. Rogers, directed by Bartlett Sher, beginning Thursday, October 27 in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. In addition, LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater's programming initiative devoted to the work of new artists, will present the world premiere of All-American, a new play by Julia Brownell, directed by Evan Cabnet, beginning performances Monday, October 24 at the Duke on 42nd Street (229 West 42 Street). In Spring 2011 LCT3 will move to its new home, the 131-seat Claire Tow Theater, currently under construction on the roof of the Vivian Beaumont Theater.
