REVIEW: ‘Other Desert Cities' sizzles with great acting

Stockard Channing, Stacy Keach and Linda Lavin star in Jon Robin Baitz's latest family drama

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

Cooking up explosive family stories happens to be a specialty for playwright Jon Robin Baitz. Hotter than "The Substance of Fire" and more eloquent than "The Paris Letter," Baitz's new "Other Desert Cities" proves to be among his best plays yet.

Powerfully interpreted by a matchless ensemble headed by Stockard Channing and Stacy Keach, director Joe Mantello's memorable production opened Thursday at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater and good luck in nabbing a ticket for it.

Baitz presents a fascinating study of privileged people haunted by their past actions. Staunch members of the old-guard Hollywood-Republican inner circle, former movie star turned ambassador Lyman Wyeth (Keach) and his elegantly preserved wife Polly (Channing) are wealthily retired in Palm Springs in 2004.

Uneasily sharing their Christmas holidays are Polly's just-out-of-rehab sister Silda (Linda Lavin), their TV producer son Trip (Thomas Sadoski) and their estranged daughter Brooke (Elizabeth Marvel) — a troubled novelist who arrives with a memoir she plans to publish.

"I have a very good memory for pain," says Brooke.

Crucial to Brooke's saga is her angry slant on what her parents did back in the 1970s when their eldest son mysteriously died after being implicated in the bombing of a federal building. Once the Wyeths get a look at the manuscript, the ensuing confrontations reveal all sorts of festering family secrets.

The plot device of a tell-all tome upsetting the domestic cart is scarcely new to drama, but Baitz paints a rich, compelling portrait of a conservative American couple and their contrasting offspring. Packing his action into one day (with a brief epilogue set in 2010), Baitz lets loose some colorful individuals whose sharp recriminations and deep-rooted conflicts transform a tasteful beige and stone living room into an emotional battleground.

Keenly directed by Mantello, terrific actors make the combustible most of Baitz's drama. Brilliant in her layered performance as the brittle, freeze-dried Polly, Channing makes a stunning turnabout when this carefully-edited individual finally drops her rigid mask. Keach confidently portrays Lyman as a genial soul anxious to avoid conflict. Acrid in tone, subversive in attitude, Lavin is slyly funny as the troublesome Silda. Looking like an East Coast refugee as Brooke — designer David Zinn's clothing is sharply observed — Marvel uses her trademark intensity and smoky voice to express a wide range of sorrows. Like his father, Sadoski's smiling, conciliatory but watchful Trip strives to keep the home fires burning comfortably.

Complete with freestanding fireplace, designer John Lee Beatty furnishes a handsome 1960s-style Palm Springs showplace that reflects its owners' former glory days even as it subtly indicates signs of wear.

Sure, some viewers may find "Other Desert Cities" a mite slick in contents, but the play never ceases to grip one's attention while Lincoln Center Theater's production is exceptionally performed and artfully staged.

"Other Desert Cities" continues through Feb.27 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 W. 65th St., New York. Call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.lct.org.