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Jon Robin Baitz

Other Desert Cities

October 27, 2026

If "Other Desert Cities" has one silver lining, it's the play's uncanny ability to attract the type of star power that blinds audiences to a mundane narrative. For its Broadway debut fifteen years ago, Jon Robin Baitz's mix of leaden one-liners and soapy seriousness enticed a talented cast that included Stockard Channing and Judith Light. It was a rewarding seduction: critical and commercial success led to a handful of Tony Award nominations, with a nod for Channing and a win for Light. Thanks to this outsized success, we are now beset by director John Benjamin Hickey's revival, which strands us with a new set of popular faces, each undoubtedly hoping that a similar oasis of acclaim will emerge from the same dry dramatic well. [more]

The Substance of Fire

May 5, 2014

Time has caught up with Jon Robin Baitz’s 1991 play and bankrupting one’s company over issues of integrity no longer seems quite admirable. Jon Robin Baitz writes literate, thoughtful plays like his 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Other Desert Cities. However, like the revival last fall of his earliest play The Film Society showed, plays may date badly or their attitudes become artifacts of another generation. [more]