'Other Desert Cities' Opens Thursday in Quogue
Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities, a play about one family’s moving struggle with the challenges and the cost of recasting the truth in the name of love, will open the Hampton Theatre Company’s 29th season on Thursday, October 24.
According to the theater company in Quogue:
Set in Palm Springs, California, during the 2004 Christmas holiday, the play explores with heart and wit the dynamics of the Wyeth family, as parents Polly and Lyman, successful show business Republicans, react to the announcement by their liberal daughter Brooke that she is about to publish a memoir dredging up a pivotal and tragic event in the family’s history.
Brooke must also navigate through some tricky emotional dust storms in explaining her motives to two other family members: her liberal Aunt Silda, a recovering alcoholic and her mother’s former writing partner; and her quick-witted and affable brother Trip, who is making his own way as a television producer and is loath to rock the family boat.
Other Desert Cities is a winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway play and it earned five Tony nominations after it moved to Broadway and was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The cast includes Hampton Theatre Company veterans Morgan Vaughan, Diana Marbury and Vay David and newcomers Craig Braun and Ian Bell. Executive Director Sarah Hunnewell directs. The set design is by Sean Marbury and lighting is by Sebastian Paczynski. Marbury designed the set’s decor and Teresa LeBrun was in charge of costuming.
Other Desert Cities opens Thursday, October 24, and runs through November 10 at the Quogue Community Hall on Jessup Avenue. Showtimes are Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Buy tickets online at hamptontheatre.org or call 1-866-811-4111. For in-person purchases, the box office opens a half hour before curtain.
Tickets are $25 for general admission, $23 for seniors (except on Saturday) and $10 for students. Season passes and dinner-and-a-show specials are also available.