Channing (Six Degrees of Separation, The House of Blue Leaves) took a brief hiatus from the biting drama beginning March 14 to film a new pilot for ABC television featuring Mandy Moore. Channing's standby, Lauren Klein, covered the role of Polly Wyeth the past several weeks.

Click here to explore the Playbill Vault page about Stockard Channing's Broadway career. 

The cast of Other Desert Cities 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 Matthew Risch (Pal Joey, Legally Blonde) 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 (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." The Broadway production features Lincoln Center Theater's original design team: John Lee Beatty (sets), David Zinn (costumes), Kenneth Posner (lighting), Jill BC DuBoff (sound) and Justin Ellington (original music).

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: