Other Desert Cities – reviews of UK premiere of hit US play

Sinead Cusack and Martha Plimpton star in funny, bruising drama about US politics and family secrets

Brooke Wyeth in 'Other Desert Cities'
(Image credit: Johan Persson)

What you need to knowThe first UK production of Broadway hit Other Desert Cities has opened at the Old Vic, London. The play by Jon Robin Baitz (creator of Brothers & Sisters and a regular writer on The West Wing) was shortlisted for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The story centres on a Hollywood family with differing political views who gather for Christmas in Palm Springs, California. Staunch Republicans Polly and Lyman Wyeth are shocked by their daughter Brooke's plan to publish a tell-all memoir dredging up uncomfortable family secrets.

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