Julia Louis-Dreyfus Debuts on Broadway in Other Desert Cities

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is set to make her Broadway debut in a fall revival of Jon Robin Baitz’s Tony-winning play Other Desert Cities, beginning September 29 at the Hudson Theatre, with an October 18 opening night and a limited run through January 17, 2027.

The first line of a family’s secret is always the same: it’s never meant to be said out loud.

This fall, Broadway will put that tension onstage again—only this time with a new face in the mix. Jon Robin Baitz’s Tony-winning play Other Desert Cities will return for its first revival at the Hudson Theatre. with performances starting September 29 ahead of an October 18 opening night. The limited engagement is scheduled to run through January 17, 2027, with Tony winner John Benjamin Hickey leading the production.

At the center of the revival is Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who will make her Broadway debut as Polly. She will appear opposite Ed Harris as Lyman, with Oscar winner Allison Janney as Silda, Joe Keery (Stranger Things) as Trip, and Lily Rabe as Brooke. Casting is by Jim Carnahan.

Other Desert Cities premiered Off-Broadway via Lincoln Center Theater in 2011 before transferring to Broadway the same year. The story follows a writer in a family that can’t agree on politics. As those divides harden. the conflict turns personal and dangerous: the writer is threatening to publish a tell-all memoir exposing a long-held family secret.

The play was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Now, nearly 20 years later, Baitz is returning to the question that first made audiences uneasy—how much of a family survives when the truth finally gets published.

“ I had, more or less, talked myself out of imagining Other Desert Cities back in New York. But John Hickey is family to me, and I trust him completely. We go back longer than I ever imagined: he hears a play—its ideas. its feeling. its music—with an intelligence and knowingness that anchors a room. ” Baitz said in a statement. “And with this company of actors a playwright dreams about. I thought that if there were still something alive in it. they would find it. What’s slightly unnerving is that nearly 20 years later. through all the fractures and divisions. the questions remain the same: how to live with who we are and what we’ve done and call that a life.”.

Hickey, for his part, said that revisiting the play recently left him struck by its reach.

“I have loved Robbie’s plays since he began writing them,” Hickey added. “I acted in two of them early in my career. and when I recently revisited Other Desert Cities. I was stunned at how relevant the play remains. maybe now more than ever. It’s an incredibly funny, surprising, and heartbreaking play about an American family. OUR American family. To be able to bring it back to Broadway. with this powerhouse ensemble of actors. and incredible creative team. is a dream come true.”.

The revival’s creative team brings together Scott Pask for scenic design. Tom Broecker for costume design. Natasha Katz for lighting design. and Mikaal Sulaiman for sound design and original music. Robert Pickens is responsible for hair and wig design, while Richard Hodge will serve as production stage manager.

The production is being put together by ATG Productions, Bad Robot Live, Gavin Kalin Productions, Kristin Caskey, and Bee Carrozzini and Mike Isaacson, with Samuel Dallas of Envoy Theatricals serving as general manager.

For ticketing, an Amex card holder pre-sale begins May 27 at 10 AM ET. General sales are set to start June 3 at 10 AM ET at OtherDesertCitiesBroadway.com.

In a country that keeps reopening old arguments—about identity, loyalty, and what people owe one another—the Broadway return of Other Desert Cities arrives with familiar pressure: what happens when a family’s private truth stops staying private.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Broadway debut Other Desert Cities Jon Robin Baitz Hudson Theatre John Benjamin Hickey Ed Harris Allison Janney Joe Keery Lily Rabe