Channing plays tough family matriarch Polly Wyeth in Jon Robin Baitz's barb-filled drama about a rocky Christmas in Palm Springs. She created the role Off-Broadway in 2011. The hiatus will allow Channing to be part of an untitled television pilot that will star Mandy Moore.

Channing will be out of the production following the March 13 performance through April 6, during which time her standby, actress Lauren Klein, will cover the role of Polly.

The cast also features Golden Globe winner Stacy Keach (Indians, "Hemingway") as Lyman Wyeth, Tony nominee Judith Light (Lombardi, "Ugly Betty") as Silda Grauman, Elizabeth Marvel ("True Grit," Top Girls) as Brooke Wyeth and Justin Kirk ("Weeds," "Angels in America") as Trip Wyeth.

Other Desert Cities began Broadway previews Oct. 12, 2011, and officially opened Nov. 3 at the Booth Theatre. The acclaimed play premiered Off-Broadway in 2011 at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse space.

Here's how LCT bills the play: "In Other Desert Cities Brooke Wyeth (Griffiths), a once promising novelist, returns home after a six year absence to celebrate Christmas in Palm Springs with her parents, former members of the Reagan inner-circle (Channing and Keach), her brother (Kirk) and her aunt (Light). When Brooke announces that she is about to publish a memoir focusing on an explosive chapter in the family’s history, the holiday reunion is thrown into turmoil and the Wyeths are both bound together and torn apart as they struggle to come to terms with their past." For tickets, priced $56.50-$126.50, visit Telecharge. A limited number of tickets priced $31.50 will be available at every performance through LincTix, LCT's new program for 21 to 35 year olds. For information and to enroll, visit LincTix.org.

View highlights from the show: