B'way Update: Other Desert Cities; Evita Dates and Theater

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and
Allison Janney will star in Other Desert Cities.

Eleven-time Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld, Veep, etc.) will make her Broadway debut in a revival of Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities, beginning previews at the Hudson Theater on Sept. 29 with an opening set for Oct. 18. She will co-star with Ed Harris, Allison Janney (seven Emmys), Joe Kerry, and Lily Rabe. Tony winner John Benjamin Hickey will direct.

“I had, more or less, talked myself out of imagining Other Desert Cities back in New York,” said playwright Baitz said in a statement. “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. 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 said in a statement, “I have loved Robbie’s plays since he began writing them. 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 play opened Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater in 2011 with a cast including Stockard Channing, Linda Lavin, Stacy Keach, Thomas Sadoski, and Elizabeth Marvel. Joe Matello directed. The production transferred to Broadway with Judith Light (who won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress) and Rachel Griffiths replacing Lavin and Marvel.

The story concerns a family with political and show-biz connections facing a crisis over a Christmas holiday when the daughter announces she is writing a tell-all memoir, potentially exposing uncomfortable family secrets.

B'way Update: Evita to Transfer

Rachel Zeigler and cast in Evita in London.
Credit: Marc Brenner

Rachel Zeigler (West Side Story film, Romeo and Juliet) will recreate her Olivier Award-winning performance in the title role of Evita on Broadway next spring at a Shubert theater to be announced, but without the controversial balcony rendition of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina." In Jamie Lloyd's London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's bio-musical featured Zeigler performing the show's most famous song on a balcony facing the street outside the theater while the audience saw it on a giant screen. Safety concerns were sited as the reason for the change. This minimalist version began life in 2019 in London's Regent Park and then transferred to the West End. 

"I was completely overwhelmed by the incredible response to Evita in London," says Lloyd in a statement. "It is an honor to work with Tim and Andrew, and I’m looking forward to revisiting the production with Rachel, whose stellar performance continues to inspire me. When we started discussing a New York production, it became apparent that our Palladium staging of ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ would not be possible. I am really excited to explore a new idea, made especially for Broadway." Lloyd's production of Much Ado About Nothing will also transfer to Broadway this upcoming season.

"Performing Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s brilliant show in London was a dream come true, but being able to partner once again with Jamie to bring Evita to Broadway is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," adds Zegler. "I can’t wait to perform for my home, New York City."

Evita, the story of the popular second wife of Argentina's president Juan Peron, was initially released as a concept album and then became a full production directed by Harold Prince in London in 1978, later transferring to Broadway and starring Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin. Madonna starred in the 1996 film version and there was a Broadway revival in 2012.