Other Desert Cities, a play by Jon Robin Baitz at Lincoln Center, starring Stockard Channing, Linda Lavin, Stacy Keach, Elizabeth Marvel and Thomas Sadoski. This potboiler play is overwrought, old fashioned melodrama (without the melo, no music) but is played with such conviction and style by this superior ensemble, three great old pros and two sensationally talented youngsters that it provides tremendous entertainment and at times, seems better than it is. It's the kind of play that would have once made a great movie for Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. All the stops are pulled out, screaming, crying, yelling, revelations, mysteries, and in a handsome setting by John Lee Beatty, and sure handed direction by Joe Mantello. It's transferring to Broadway in the Fall. The Ensemble gets an A+ and the play a B- making for an overall grade of A-