Risch (Pal Joey, Legally Blonde, Chicago), who has understudied the role of Trip since the play premiered Off-Broadway in 2011, has performed the part several times, including a stint last December while original cast member Thomas Sadoski filmed a new Aaron Sorkin pilot.
Kirk ("Weeds," "Angels In America," The Understudy, Old Wicked Songs) played his final performance March 25.
Risch previously co-starred opposite Other Desert Cities leading lady Stockard Channing in the Broadway revival of Pal Joey. He will now portray her son in the tense family drama. Channing is currently on hiatus and will return April 6. Her understudy Lauren Klein appears in the role of Polly through April 5.
In addition to Tony Award winner Channing (Six Degrees of Separation, The House of Blue Leaves) as matriarch Polly Wyeth, the cast features Golden Globe winner Stacy Keach (Indians, "Hemingway") as Lyman Wyeth, Tony nominee Judith Light (Lombardi, "Ugly Betty") as Silda Grauman and Elizabeth Marvel ("True Grit," Top Girls) as Brooke 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 (Marvel), 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 (Risch) 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:
