Video: It’s All Relative! The Cast of OTHER DESERT CITIES Celebrates Opening Night

Other Desert Cities is back on Broadway! The acclaimed play by Jon Robin Baitz has returned to the stage in a star-studded revival directed by John Benjamin Hickey, featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Joe Keery, and Lily Rabe. BroadwayWorld was on the scene at the Hudson Theatre for opening night to catch up with the company about bringing the family drama to a new generation of theatergoers.

For Janney, the play’s exploration of family divisions feels particularly timely. “I told Robbie he could have written this play yesterday, could have pulled this right out of the typewriter yesterday,” she explained. “It’s extraordinary because it’s about a family fractured by politics. Can you imagine? … Everything that Silda says is so prescient, and when I get to say the things I do, political things that I do, I am filled with what’s going on in our country now.”

Hickey, who has a long history with Baitz and his work, has been eager to revisit the play for years. “I have cherished this play for so long, and I would just read it every couple of years, and it just kept getting deeper and richer and more resonant and funnier,” he shared. “And I thought, if I could find five really great actors to do this play, I sure would love to do it. And I think I kind of did that.”

Despite its political undertones, Louis-Dreyfus believes the play’s greatest strength is its universal exploration of family relationships. “It’s just a really great group of people and a great story we’re telling. And it’s going to resonate with everyone who sees it right now,” she said. “It’s just an important play. And there’s nobody who won’t relate to this in some way because it’s about families and everybody’s got family and it’s complicated.”