amargosa opera house hotel death valley junction

Marta is a painter and singer, and was a dancer in her younger days. I come to learn she has that effect on a lot of people.

Wearing a velvet gown and fake mustache, she leads off with her crackle-whisper of a voice - both deadly feminine and wizard-like - singing, “If I could be a Hollywood producer, I would find a budding star and seduce her.” Somehow, when I hear these lyrics, my hangover dissipates, and my New-Year’s-resolution-relapse weight is momentarily forgotten - everything is going to be a-okay from here on out. At its heyday in the early 1900s, Death Valley Junction had about 300 residents, and roughly the same amount are currently packed into the tiny theater.įor her final show, Marta decides not to perform a single opera, as she would have on a typical night, and opts instead to perform her favorite songs from the ones she’s written while in Death Valley. “I’ve never had an audience like this before,” she tells us. The audience quiets as Marta begins to speak. Marta appears on stage, escorted by Rich, who helps her settle into what can only be described as a throne. I was lucky enough to get a standing-room-only ticket at the last minute, and upon arrival I’m ushered to the back corner by a large goateed man who I later learn is Rich Regnell, the town’s sheriff, mayor, and - as blogs would have it - “resident badass.” Crammed next to a group of Swedish TV producers, I sweat out last night’s booze mingled with this morning’s coffee, and from the smell of it, I’m not the only one detoxing. Women in Spanish-opera-singer costumes, men wearing tank tops and cowboy hats, and retired couples in matching Hawaiian shirts are all reminiscing about the last time they saw Marta perform, and thanking various deities that she didn’t decide to have her final show in the heat of the summer. Today the theater is packed for her farewell. sharp - even if her only audience was the one she’d painted on the walls. For 44 straight years, it’s been the site of her one-woman show, which she’s performed three nights a week at 8:15 p.m. It’s a Sunday afternoon and I’m hungover in Death Valley Junction, CA, waiting to see 87-year-old Marta Becket’s final performance at the famed Amargosa Opera House.

Amargosa opera house hotel death valley junction