When fragile Brooke Wyeth comes home to visit her family in chic Palm Springs for the Christmas holidays for the first time in six years, she has a surprise in store for her parents, who are both retired from glamorous Hollywood careers, members of the Republican elite, a former movie star and a successful screenwriter.
Brooke is a troubled author, and she has after much struggle and delay, written a book, a memoir which reveals painful secrets about her family and the story of her lost brother Henry. These are secrets her parents Polly and Lyman Wyeth would rather keep to themselves. Brooke wants their approval to publish, and she enlists the aid of her television producer younger brother Tripp and her recovering alcoholic Aunt Silda in obtaining that approval.
What starts as a witty and fun gathering of a loving family takes shocking turns as the truth comes out, transforming the bonds and longstanding relationships which exist between them all.
The title "Other Desert Cities" comes from a road sign pointing the way to Coachella.
This play is rated R for strong language/profanity.