Article updated: 1/25/2013 7:35 AM

Politics underpins domestic drama in Goodman's 'Other Desert Cities'

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New York writer Brooke (Tracy Michelle Arnold, left) returns home with a memoir that will not sit well with her Republican Old Guard parents Lyman (Chelcie Ross, second from left) and Polly (Deanna Dunagan, right) in Jon Robin Baitz's "Other Desert Cities." Goodman Theatre's highly entertaining Chicago area premiere also stars John Hoogenakker, second from right, as Brooke's brother Trip.

Photo by Liz Lauren

Former GOP chairman Lyman Wyeth (Chelcie Ross) and his wife Polly (Deanna Dunagan) worry that their daughter's tell-all memoir will upend the life they have so carefully cultivated in Goodman Theatre's production of Jon Robin Baitz's "Other Desert Cities."

Photo by Liz Lauren

The decision by daughter Brooke (Tracy Michelle Arnold, left) to publish a tell-all memoir threatens to destroy the Wyeth family headed by longtime Republican stalwart Lyman (Chelcie Ross) in Jon Robin Baitz's "Other Desert Cities."

Photo by Liz Lauren

Linda Kimbrough, left, plays Silda Grauman, the far-left counterpart to her Reagan Republican sister Polly in Goodman Theatre's Chicago-area premiere of Jon Robin Baitz's Tony Award-nominated "Other Desert Cities."

Photo by Liz Lauren

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Of the praise Goodman Theatre deserves for its Chicago-area premiere of Jon Robin Baitz's “Other Desert Cities,” much belongs to casting director Adam Belcuore. His decisions suggest not just a keen eye for talent — which in this production is considerable — but also a keen awareness of the power of vocal timbre to define character and relationships.