Longtime readers of the site know that there’s no greater wildcard than the item I call “Entertainment Editorial.” I might use it to call George Clooney “The King of Fall” and cover his career, I might use it to predict Oscar nominations or which Fall TV shows will survive, or I might use it to talk about going anywhere from The Colbert Report to the Opera. And into the grab bag of “Oh, why the hell not…” I will now add a Broadway review for Other Desert Cities.
Does this really count as an event? I can’t say. I only saw three Broadway shows last year and may not even see that many this year, BUT I should at least review them and get something back for the outrageous ticket price. So here goes…
Other Desert Cities is about a self-absorbed writer (Brothers and Sisters’s Rachel Griffiths) who comes home for the holidays to her Republican family. [Stacy Keach as a former actor-turned-Reagan-era ambassador, and Stockard Channing as a Texas Jew turned GOP grand dame about like Nancy Reagan or Barbara Bush.] This is all under the guise of family time but it’s really only so she can reveal that she’s written a tell-all book about them and especially their most painful period: their oldest son who blew up an Army recruiting station during the height of Vietnam protest.
I think the idea of a “Home for the Holidays” play where the lead actually has a nasty surprise is a great set-up for the type of dramatic but witty play this one so wants to be. Yet something felt oddly missing in the core of it. For starters, I felt my sympathies actually align with Stacy Keach and Stockard Channing’s characters more than with Rachel Griffiths and Judith Light (as the family’s other liberal and alcoholic member, Aunt Silda). And when you start to feel downright bad for two of the characters and turned off by the other two, it makes the play feel more like an exercise in getting through it than really enjoying.
Another problem (and this is a frequent one in Broadway AND today’s book market) is that the play’s stuck in the past. Even though there’s a lot of terrific material for this type of play with the modern age’s Iraq/Afghanistan wars, Tea Party, black president, conservative intolerance, etc. The play only wants to talk about (sigh…) fucking Vietnam and the late 60’s. Once again flogging an era that has been more than well-mined by pop culture as the only time period after World War II where anyone seems to think anything happened.
And it isn’t just the material but the dialogue that seems outdated. It’s filled with verrrrry Broadway like declarations that real people almost never say. Just close your eyes and imagine Stockard Channing opening her mouth and then any of the other characters saying “Oh yeah, the great Polly,” (a frequent Broadway type speech pattern that can also be seen in theaters with Carnage…based on a Broadway play). Or imagine someone saying something a little too dramatic to try to make it seem gut wrenching, but then, inexplicably, going to stand quietly by a wall so other actors can have their moment. By the time the play reached it’s ridiculous twist ending, I felt disappointed in the whole thing.
Still, the performance of Stockard Channing was great, and Stacy Keach is nearly as good as a man trying to enjoy his golden years despite his grown children’s best efforts to wreck them. And the first act did see some decent laughs. But I hold out hope for a Broadway that can escape the nostalgic 60’s, bury its head in today’s conflicts, and maybe, just maybe detail conflicts that aren’t exclusive to rich people.