In Broadway’s highly anticipated ‘Other Desert…
Lily Rabe thrives on drama and surprises in both her wardrobe and her work. “I don’t ever like to stay in a comfort zone,” she tells Alexa. “That’s what keeps it all exciting.”
Her go-to designers for crimson carpet seems and occasions? “Rodarte. Erdem — a total fave,” she shares during our New York City one-on-one. “I love Honor. Bora Aksu. Oh, and Bode.”
And for on a regular basis? “I definitely have a Mayle obsession for my personal life.”
Sweater, price upon request, skirt, $5,900, socks, $995, pumps, $1,650, all at Prada Victoria Will
At 44, Rabe is thought for transferring seamlessly between stage and screen, and basic and modern tales. “I have a sort of insatiable appetite for work,” she says. “Right now, I’d say I do feel very sated.”
No marvel. This is a big theater season for her. On Aug. 23, she wrapped her run reverse Raúl Esparza in “The Winter’s Tale,” her fifth show in the Public Theater’s free Shakespeare in the Park sequence.
On Sept. 29 at the Hudson Theatre, Rabe is back on Broadway. She performs Brooke, a troubled author whose memoir detonates a well-to-do household’s long-buried darkish historical past, in “Other Desert Cities,” formally opening Oct. 18. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Ed Harris play her dad and mom, Allison Janney her aunt and Joe Keery her brother.
Actress Lily Rabe performs on stage during a manufacturing of William Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” for Shakespeare in the Park this past summer time. MediaPunch / BACKGRID
The collective star energy makes director John Benjamin Hickey’s new manufacturing of Jon Robin Baitz’s 2011 play a Mohave sizzling ticket.
Rabe sat down for her first read-through with the forged on Aug. 25, but getting together with her playmates for an earlier picture shoot was enough to make an impression. “I’m in love with all of them,” Rabe says.
She’s labored with Harris before, but the revival marks her first appearing collaboration with the remainder of the forged. In June at the Tony Awards, she shared a stage and introduced the Best Play honors with Louis-Dreyfus, an 11-time Emmy winner.
“I’ll watch her in anything. I wish she were our president,” says Rabe, alluding to Louis-Dreyfus’ function in the politically pungent “Veep.” “Although I’m glad she’s not, because I wouldn’t be able to do this play with her.”
Dress, $12,890, Gilded Cage earrings, $1,590, and Meret clogs, $1,590, all at Chloe; Bianca longline bra, $158 at Fleur du Mal; Brief, $28 at Spanx Victoria Will
Then again, Rabe, along with her two brothers, is aware of all about real-life exceptional kin. She’s the daughter of the late Oscar-nominated actress Jill Clayburgh (“An Unmarried Woman,” “Starting Over”), who died in November 2010, and the 86-year-old Tony-winning playwright David Rabe (“Sticks and Bones”).
Creativity is in her DNA. “My dad is a really smart guy,” says Rabe. “He did not have a fancy upbringing at all. But he had a love of language and determination.”
And so does she. Her mother’s legacy? Rabe pauses, as if flashing back to youthful days in New York City, where she was born, before transferring to Westchester and then the Connecticut countryside.
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“She was such an incredible mother,” says Rabe. “She was so curious. She was always leaning in and leaning forward. She had no regrets.”
What her mom did have was a hanging sense of model. “She had great clothes, and she looked beautiful in them,” says Rabe. “I remember running around in a costume from a Bertolucci movie. I always loved dressing up.”
Rabe’s grown-up ardour for fashion runs deep. During an Alexa picture shoot at the historic 1850s Captain Barnes mansion on Staten Island, the sight of garments by Prada, Chloé, Dior and others turned her into a child in a couture store.
“We all felt like we were in New Orleans,” she says, including that the expertise was “singular.”
Bodysuit and gown, both price upon request at Prabal Gurung; Earrings, $55 at Ettika; Antonia 40 pumps, $495 at Sandy Liang Victoria Will
She feels that means about NYC. After 12 years of either being based in Los Angeles or bicoastal, Rabe is back in Manhattan full time with longtime companion and frequent co-star Hamish Linklater (“Widow’s Bay,” “Midnight Mass”) and their 4 children — ages 4, 6, 9 and 19.
“It’s my favorite city in the world,” she says. “I’m close to the theater again, whether that means doing plays or going to see them.”
She didn’t anticipate to be away from the stage so long. It’s been 11 years since Rabe’s last star flip at the Delacorte Theater. Her last Broadway show, “Seminar,” ended its run 14 years in the past. At the opening evening celebration for “The Winter’s Tale,” Linklater slipped Rabe a word that spoke volumes about her return to the stage and NYC: “Happy homecoming.”
She met him through her mother in 2006, when he and Clayburgh acted in an off-Broadway play. Flash ahead twenty years: they’re a household of six. “We love parenting together,” Rabe provides, even if they’re in “a constant state of doing a circus juggle. We’re super scrappy about it.”
Drape top, Stomacher gown, Hip puffs, and Winterised petticoat, all price upon request at gross sales@ZoeGustaviaAnnaWhalen.com; Sublima cocktail ring, $199 at Swarovski; Capsli pumps, $1,025 at Manolo Blahnik Victoria Will
With their three younger children and a faculty pupil from his earlier relationship, that’s required. “We’re not parents who don’t say no,” she says, “but we don’t have hard-and-fast rules.”
The couple received close 16 years in the past, a breakout time for Rabe. While learning theater at Northwestern University, she’d made her screen and stage debuts in 2001 and 2002, respectively, alongside her mother. She notched three roles between 2005 and 2009 on Broadway, including her debut as the shy Annelle in “Steel Magnolias.”
Then, in 2010, director Daniel Sullivan forged her as Portia reverse Al Pacino in “The Merchant of Venice.” Linklater performed her love curiosity. The show earned strong reviews in Central Park, transferred to Broadway, earned her a Best Actress Tony nomination and helped open doorways wider to stage and screen roles.
Since then, TV and movie work has stored her busy — and in good company — alongside Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and others in Ryan Murphy’s spooky anthology sequence, “American Horror Story.” A sampling of Rabe’s characters contains a few ghosts, a witch and well-known aviator Amelia Earhart.
Goya top and Tessa skirt, comparable kinds obtainable, and Santa Fe necklace, $1,600, all at Khaite; Faiz 100 lace pumps, $1,650 at Jimmy Choo Victoria Will
“It was a tremendous gift in my life,” Rabe says. “The thing that I loved most about it is that it was like being in a repertory company.”
Her latest movie is “Capsized,” a comedy drama with Rhys Ifans about a dysfunctional household.
Rabe’s screen work isn’t just in entrance of the digital camera. In 2023, she co-directed “Downtown Owl,” a comedy set in a fictional small city in North Dakota. Harris performed a local resident, and Rabe portrayed a trainer who’s new to the neighborhood.
“Ed can do anything,” she says. “I feel something very familial with him.”
That performs out in “Other Desert Cities,” a dramedy that goes inside the lives of the politically conservative Wyeths of Palm Springs, Calif. It’s a story stacked with complexity, curveballs and whip-smart language. She appreciates its take on how our nearest and dearest may be the toughest puzzles to crack.
Adriane jacket, $6,900, and Helge trousers, $4,400, comparable kinds obtainable at Loro Piana; Rory earrings, $195 at Ben Amun Victoria Will
“Often the greatest mysteries of our life are from what’s closest to us — and that’s our families,” says Rabe. “I find that to be a harrowing idea. And compelling. And exhilarating.”
Every week into rehearsals, Rabe’s sense of connection has grown deeper with her castmates, she says in a follow-up chat. “I feel it with every single one of them in ways I can’t explain. You don’t really want to explain it. You just feel it.”
On location: Our cowl shoot passed off at Staten Island’s Captain Barnes, a landmarked 1850s mansion constructed for oysterman Stephen D. Barnes and his spouse, Judith Van Pelt. One of the last survivors of Staten Island’s Captains’ Row, its structure blends Italianate and Gothic Revival traditions with Moorish aptitude. “Over its many lives, the house has been used or remembered as a sailors’ boarding house, speakeasy, cabaret and gathering place for artists,” says proprietor Biagio Pergolizzi, who is restoring the home with his spouse, Giovanna. “Today, while it remains our family home, we occasionally open its doors for film, photography, music, celebrations and other creative endeavors. The people who enter become part of its continuing story.” CaptainBarnes.com
Photographer: Victoria Will; Editor: Alev Aktar; Stylist: Anahita Moussavian; Photo Editor: Jessica Hober; Talent Booker: Patty Adams Martinez; Hair: Peter Butler at Tracey Mattingly utilizing Oribe; Makeup: Mary Wiles at Walter Schupfer Management utilizing Counter Beauty; Manicure: Kayo Higuchi at Bryan Bantry Agency utilizing Chanel Le Vernis; Lighting Director: Timothy Young; Photo Assistant: Tessa Dillman; Digital Tech: Dustin Betterly; Fashion Assistant: Dominic Turiczek, On-set Assistant: Yared Glicksman
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