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Dancing at the end of the Earth: Marta Becket's show at the Amargosa Opera House always goes on--with or without an audience.

Article Excerpt
Death Valley Junction is a destination, but it isn't a town, exactly--it's a hotel, a theater shadowed by some adobe houses, and a pair of abandoned buildings standing by the side of a two-lane road in Death Valley. The fastest way to get there is to fly into Las Vegas, rent a car, and drive nearly three hours west into the desert. You may want to stop in Pahrump, an hour away, for groceries and gas, because there are no service stations, no stores, and no restaurants in Death Valley Junction, nor is there bus or train service. Once you've passed Pahrump, the only sound you're likely to hear, besides static from the car radio, is the whoosh of warm desert wind past your ears. The landscape is scrubby and vast, ringed by red-rock hills that take on a spectacular hue at sunset; here, small pleasures--fleeting glimpses of roadrunners, stretches of freshly paved road--are unexpectedly gratifying.

There are two reasons people find themselves in Death Valley Junction: They stumble across it on the way to somewhere else, or they've come to see Marta Becket. This 78-year-old former Broadway dancer, still slim and graceful (and single-mindedly dedicated to her art), owns Death Valley Junction and operates the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel, aided by a five-person staff and her business and theatrical partner, Tom Willett. She maintains a small menagerie of cats, horses, and peacocks and oversees the long, single-story stucco hotel, throughout which she has painted small scenes and decorative flourishes.

She also creates and...