Joe Keery is making his Broadway debut in Other Desert Cities this fall, playing a character who at first seems like a smooth Hollywood talker, but ultimately just wants to keep his family together.
Or, as he puts it, “My goal, I’ve joked to myself for the next 105 or whatever shows, is to save Christmas.”
The play, written by Jon Robin Baitz and directed by John Benjamin Hickey, was an easy “Yes” for Keery, who had been wanting to back into theater after starring as Steve Harrington in Stranger Things, as he had developed a love for the stage growing up and in drama school. What made it easier was the cast members for the play, which started with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Allison Janney and Ed Harris.
“The original reading that I did, it was Julia and Allison and Ed doing that reading. So, yeah, big fans of those three in there. That’s the sort of email you get, and you say, “Holy shit! OK, great. Yeah, I will do that,’” Keery said.
Lily Rabe later joined the cast, playing Keery’s sister. She sets the plot into motion as she and Keery visit their conservative parents (Louis-Dreyfus and Harris) for the holidays, and she brings a copy of a new book she’s written that uncovers dirt from the family’s past. Rabe asks for her parents’ blessing to release the book, despite it casting them in a negative light, while Keery’s character acts as the intermediary as tensions erupt, including with Louis-Dreyfus’s sister (Janney). The play opens Oct. 18 at the Hudson Theatre for a run through Jan. 17.
Making the show work within Keery’s schedule was a challenge. In addition to his onscreen career, Keery is a musician, performing under the stage name Djo, with songs including “End of Beginning,” which went viral on TikTok and climbed the Billboard Hot 100. In early 2026, he toured Mexico and South America before going on to be the opening act for Tame Impala. And he had been on the U.K. leg of his own tour right before rehearsals for the play began.
“It was a rather blunt turnover,” Keery said. “I finished on a Sunday, flew on a Monday, and then started rehearsing on a Tuesday. The first week or two, I was definitely feeling maybe the whiplash of it all, but I just had to make it work.”
Amid the starry names on the stage, Keery has one of the standout monologues, in which he points out the love the family actually has for each other, despite the bickering, and how Rabe’s book and overall view on her family may not be entirely truthful and inherently, harmful, despite its artistic value. Preparing for that speech required a deep collaboration with Hickey, as well as learning to internalize the character.
“I learned my lines, and then you realize you don’t know them at all, and then you have to learn them all over again. A ton of my work that I end up doing is just trying to, as much as possible, get things into my brain and my body by moving. So, generally, it involves a lot of walking and a lot of talking to myself, and then rehearsing,” Keery said.
And despite his initial awe at the cast members, including Rabe, Keery said now that they’re on stage, it feels just like being in a high school play.
“There’s something about doing a play that, you kind of have to leave your ego at the door. Everyone’s doing it because they want to do it. Everyone’s doing it because they love it. So, I think it’s kind of this great equalizer,” he said.
Keery is one of the latest Stranger Things cast members to come to the New York stage, following Gaten Matarazzo, Maya Hawke and more. He was encouraged to do so by Sadie Sink, who returned to Broadway in 2025 John Proctor is the Villain.
Keery appeared in several independent films throughout Stranger Things as well as in the television series Fargo. Going forward, Keery said he plans to continue both acting and performing as a musician, but he doesn’t have an exact calculation on how it will balance out. He adds that post-Stranger Things, he hasn’t planned out any dream roles, per se, but rather continues to look for parts that feel new and challenging.
“It’s never really up to you. I mean, it’s not like I have like my pick of the litter of these things,” Keery said. “I’m sort of a big believer in the right things kind of coming my way, and trusting my gut on what I want to be doing, just like day to day.“