A few months ago, I came upon an article written by Jon Robin Baitz about the depression he experienced after his TV creation, “Brothers and Sisters” didn’t work out in his favor and how he took a much-needed hiatus after that five years ago. I remember my feeling of hope that he would bounce back quickly and come back to play writing, as his former plays including THe Substance of Fire had such a profound effect on me.
Not only has he bounced back with a new show at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center, but it is some of his best work in a long time. Not only that, but I think he took the best parts of how he envisioned Brothers and Sisters and put it into this show. It’s political drama at its finest and I can’t tell you how satisfying it left me.
I can’t agree more with Ben Brantley, the NY Times theater critic, who in his review of the show talked about the magnetism of the actors. The acting is so good from each member of the ensemble that you don’t know who watch first, just as he stated. Stockard Channing plays the matriarch of the family who lives in Palm Springs. She plays a former Hollywood writer who’s expressions I could not take my eyes off of. She is married to the impeccable Stacy Keach, a retired movie star and politician who followed in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan. His controlled, slow break down is staggering to watch. Their children are played by Thomas Sadoski and Elizabeth Marvel, two very different people who love each other beyond the shadow of a doubt. I will be forever be on the look out for both young actors after seeing them in this performance. I was so impressed that the two young stars could keep up with these legends. Marvel was so effective in her performance that she must be nominated for a Tony Award. She must.To top off the already amazing cast is Linda Lavin, one of my all time favorite stage actresses, playing Channing’s sister, Aunt Silda, a recovering alcoholic.
The play, set in 2004, is about an affluent Southern California couple who fall apart when their daughter announces that she has written a memoir about the loss of one of her brothers. There are secrets – big secrets – that they are keeping from each other and the parents worry that the book’s publication will have deep repercussions on the family and on their lives. The more they discuss it, the more we learn about the history of the characters and how they’ve dealt with the tragedy of losing a family member.
Joe Mantello directs the show exquisitely. Baitz has provided him with an easy play to direct – well, easy and complex – with fresh dialogue and humor that keeps the mood up until the secrets come out and the bomb drops. When it did, I was at the end of my seat, literally gasping for air. How often can you say that about a show?
Other Desert Cities is playing at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, New York through Feb. 27. All performances are sold-out.
Disclosure: I was neither paid nor were these tickets provided to me for this performance.
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