Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...But Baitz, who is clearly writing about a thinly disguised version of the Reagans, is not a trivial kind of scribe, even when playing with such a traditional structure. Smart and engaging throughout, this piece pulls in a variety of salient issues, including the clash of generations, the demise of just keeping one's mouth shut, the necessity of honesty, the old guard standing by while more radical elements take over their Republican Party and, most interesting of all, the ways we find to justify all the different ways we trample on other people to gain power or make a buck. "Other Desert Cities" is never dull for a moment."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Baitz quite dazzlingly manages to flip every side of the personal and political coin here with a mix of vitriol, comedy, true anguish and equal opportunity hypocrisy. I will not disclose the play’s most crucial information, but suffice it to say it confirms that all politics are not just “local” but profoundly personal. They are the politics of family, of blood."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Further revelations raise still more questions about the nature of the tale and who has the right to tell it. Baitz clearly sympathizes with Brooke's position that a writer must write even if it causes pain to those closest to her. He doesn't forget, though, that her subjects have their own version of events. Baitz indulges in a few plot contrivances and tends to preach to the choir regarding the perfidy of the George W. Bush administration, yet his play makes a bold and sharp-witted sally into the minefield of family myth. It stings as much as it zings."
Centerstage - Somewhat Recommended
"...Jon Robin Baitz is probably one of our most gifted playwrights. In his wonderful plays “The Substance of Fire” and “Three Hotels,” he seems to thrive on dramas about families experiencing their defining moments. Unfortunately, his current play, “Other Desert Cities,” at Goodman Theatre, doesn’t quite fulfill the promise of his earlier work."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...The recent-period setting, just after the re-election of George W. Bush and as the Iraq War was not yet looking like a quagmire, allows Baitz some too-easy hindsight quips. And all five characters onstage, including Brooke’s apolitical TV-producer younger brother (John Hoogenakker) and Polly’s dyed-in-the-wool-liberal, recovering-alcoholic sister (Linda Kimbrough), can occasionally sound like authorial hand puppets. Yet both the playwright and director Henry Wishcamper resist facile caricature. Led by Dunagan’s flinty, pragmatic Polly and Ross’s sonorous Lyman, Wishcamper’s top-notch cast sells even Baitz’s soapiest twists with aplomb."
ShowBizChicago - Highly Recommended
"...By the end of the Other Desert Cities you are so heavily invested in this family that their emotional dissent can't help but move you to tears. Though the subject material is precise to the Wyeth's, the bigger notion of being loved and accepted in a world which tells you that you are an outcast, resounds with universality."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"...No question, this quintet is ripe and ready for the catty put-downs, passive-aggressive infighting and “gotcha” giveaways that drive the dialogue. But they can’t redeem a cunning plot that ultimately cops out, papering over crises that a braver playwright would never dare to fix."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...What makes Other Deseret Cities so compelling is the wonderful cast led by the graceful Deanna Dunagen as the Nancy Reagan-like Polly. Chelcie Ross is the patriarch Lyman who tries had to be civil. Linda Kimbrough is the whip-smart sister with the sharp comic timing. John Hoogenakker is the sardonic brother who only wants peace in the family. Tracy Michelle Arnold is the totally honest and conflicted daughter/writer bent on telling the truth. The interactions and explosions are both engaging and telling. A wonder ensemble carries Baitz’s script home with style and loads of truth. This play has much to say and a shocking revelation. It is a fine political potboiler."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Recommended
"...Under the direction of Henry Wishcamper, this family slings dirt like polished sophisticates. Deanna Dunagan rules the family and the stage. She channels Dynasty’s Alexis Colby. Dunagan wears a beautiful blue, flowing diva-garb (costume designer Kaye Voyce). She is in control with precise and affected diction. Her husband, an endearing Chelcie Ross (Lyman) has multiple peaks of emotional duress. Ross‘ distinct voice, known from his “Mad Men” Conrad Hilton stint, draws me in. I’m immediately on Dunagan and Ross’ side making an intenseTracy Michelle Arnold (Brooke) an unsympathetic character."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...This is a story filled with twists and turns, comical moments and some serious moments where we see a family that appears loving and caring fall apart at the seams. The action moves quickly during this 2 hours and 20 minutes, never seeming to drag"
Huffington Post - Recommended
"...It's not hard to understand why Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities is such an effective play. This award-winning compact family drama addresses the notions of deception, trust, loyalty, privacy and integrity using a deliciously straightforward setup: a strong-willed novelist daughter returns home to declare to her well-bred and respected republican family that her next book, set to publish in a few short months, is actually a tell-all memoir uncovering some carefully concealed family secrets -- secrets that would unceremoniously topple this family to the ground."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Somewhat Recommended
"... Here’s my problem with “Other Desert Cities.” I don’t care about the problems of the Wyeths and I was annoyed by how vital they consider their domestic difficulties would appear to the outside world. We live in a culture that wallows in celebrity revelation and scandal and the Wyeths flatter themselves if they consider their exposure through Brooke’s memoir will cause any seismic impact in the country. All their shouting back and forth assumes the aura of a stereotype therapy session. One waits for Dr. Phil to step through the plate glass doors into the living room and sort everyone out. The revelation near the end of the play does mitigate the elder Wyeth’s strident opposition to the book publication, but that means all their previous arguing ultimately is misdirection and beside the point."