Maltz Jupiter Theatre to Present OTHER DESERT CITIES, 2/16-3/2

What do you do when your adult daughter returns home for the holidays and announces she is about to publish a controversial memoir? Can you stop her?

Hidden secrets are unearthed and family tensions crackle in the hot new Tony-nominated play Other Desert Cities, onstage February 16 - March 2 at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre. Written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Jon Robin Baitz and hailed by the New York Times as the "best new play on Broadway" in 2011, the drama follows a young novelist who returns home to Palm Springs for the holidays and announces that she is about to publish a book dredging up a deep family tragedy.

The tell-all confessional novel threatens to put her prominent all-American family back in the tabloids. But will the truth be exposed? This explosive drama sheds light on a dysfunctional family reunion everyone can relate to.

"At its core, this is a story about a troubled family struggling to reconcile their past," said Peter Flynn, the show's director. "There is anger and regret, but there is also a great love for one another - which is what makes the stakes so high. The heart of the play lives in something the son says: 'On your last day on this planet...all what will have mattered is how you loved.'"

Flynn's directorial credits include directing at regional theatres such as the Guthrie Theater and Chicago Shakespeare Theater, as well as staging a number of star-studded concerts on Broadway, including On the Twentieth Century, starring Douglas Sills, Marin Mazzie and Joanne Worley and Chess at the New Amsterdam Theater, starring Josh Groban.

"We are so excited to welcome Peter Flynn back to the Maltz Jupiter Theatre to direct our new drama, Other Desert Cities," said Andrew Kato, the Theatre's producing artistic director. "Our audiences are still talking about our production of Man of LaMancha, for which he earned Carbonell Awards for both Best Director and Best Musical. He has an innate talent for bringing out the truth of a story and keeping audiences on The Edge of their seats."

The production stars celebrated South Florida actors Cliff Burgess (a recent Carbonell Award nominee) as the brother Trip; Carbonell winner Angie Radosh as the mother's alcoholic sister Silda, last seen on the Theatre's stage as Fraulein Schneider in the critically-acclaimed production of Cabaret; and Andrea Conte as the daughter Brooke (seen recently onstage in South Florida and in episodes of the television shows The Glades, Burn Notice, America's Most Wanted and more).

Susan Cella will portray the role of the matriarch Polly (whose Broadway credits include The Graduate, Crazy He Calls Me, Me and My Girl and Evita), and Richard Kline will portray the father Lyman (known for his role as Larry Dallas on the sitcom Three's Company, in addition to regional and Broadway credits that include the Wizard in the first national tour of Wicked).

Other Desert Cities premiered Off-Broadway at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center Theater in 2011, starring Stockard Channing, Linda Lavin, Stacy Keach, Thomas Sadoski and Elizabeth Marvel and earning the Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play by the Outer Critics Circle. The play transferred to Broadway, opening at the Booth Theatre on November 3, 2011, with Judith Light replacing Lavin and Rachel Griffiths replacing Marvel. The production received five nominations for the 2012 Tony Awards, and the play was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Other Desert Cities is sponsored by John Osher and Jodie and Dan Hunt and the Roy A. Hunt Foundation. The Theatre's 62 new club level seats are available for single tickets and subscription upgrades for Other Desert Cities. Group rates are available, and the Theatre's new upstairs club level lounge, The Green Room, is available for private events and functions.

Tickets for Other Desert Cities start at $52 and may be purchased by calling (561) 575-2223 or visiting www.jupitertheatre.org/shows/otherdesertcities. Please note that performances contain strong language.

To post a comment, you must register and login.