Death Valley Junction, California: Amargosa Opera House

Amazing find. So glad this is on Roadside America! Shows set to resume February 2022! Maybe the cafe will reopen too, later next year, but the tour was definitely worth it. Tours at 9 and 5, $10 donation.

Worth the stop to see the beautiful opera building brought back to life. Definitely a ghost town as well.

The opera house is a wonderful find. Try the little cafe attached to the hotel - it has great homemade coconut cream pie. And check out Amber's drawings. She works in the cafe and does pencil drawings as a hobby, and they are really excellent.

Overall, I loved Death Valley Junction. It's quirky, unique and very friendly.

Death Valley's only opera house suffered a serious blow when owner/performer Marta Beckett's husband (and co-performer) Tim Willett, 77, died of a stroke on April 15, 2005. Tom was the Amargosa Opera House's comic relief, appearing on stage in a ballerina's tutu and other flamboyant outfits and roles....

We just visited Marta Beckett's Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, California. As an oft discussed topic in the Travel section of the New York Times, we decided to check it out ourselves. It was everything that we thought it would be -- an almost 80 year old ballerina formerly of New York City puts on a kooky, allegorical show with deeper references than our over-heated brains could process. Much of the show was her "dance pantomines" but in the last two acts, she dances on point. Thrilling and wonderfully refreshing. There's an honesty and innocence that's hard to describe.

You can't beat the location either -- a U-shaped complex of buildings sits alone in the desert, arising like a forgotten toy. The hotel is charming, clean, and filled with beautiful murals. The Opera House itself is overwhelming, filled to the brim with beautifully executed murals of an audience of nobles and commoners.