The Desert Rose Playhouse, the Coachella Valley’s live stage LGBTQ+ stage company located in Rancho Mirage, California, announces the line-up of productions for its 2018-2019 Seventh Season of Shows.

The Sugar Witch by Nathan Sanders 
October 5 – October 28, 2018
The Bean family in Sugar Bean, Florida live under an ancient family curse. The surviving members of the town's founding family have reached the end of their rope. Just when things can't possibly get any worse, tragedy strikes as a mysterious and brutal murder takes place in the Bean family home. The crime places "Moses" and "Sisser" in grave danger as "Annabelle", the last in a long-line of so-called "Sugar Witches", attempts to end the curse placed on their heads by the dying words of her very own grandmother.

Dark family secrets are revealed, and unusual passions are ignited as the family confronts madness, truth and the destructive legacy of racism as the spirits of the dead walk the dark swamp, haunting the hearts of all who reside there. The Sugar Witch is a dark, Southern Gothic play that will linger in the minds of the audience long after the curtain falls.

Christmas with the Crawfords, created by Richard Winchester, written by Mark Sargent  
November 30 – December 23, 2018
A fanciful takeoff on Hollywood gossip maven Hedda Hopper's live radio broadcast from movie star Joan Crawford's Brentwood Mansion on Christmas Eve in 1944. The imperious Joan and her adopted children, Christina and Christopher–a family whose epic dysfunctions are known to millions through Christina Crawford's book Mommy Dearest and its subsequent film version–receive a houseful of celebrity guests, most of whom are on their way to a big bash at Gary Cooper's house next door. 
Never the warmest, most emotionally stable woman on the planet, Crawford is especially volatile on this occasion because of an outrageous indignity: She has been asked by Warner Bros. to do a screen test for the film Mildred Pierce. So, things are touchy at the Crawford digs. And, as her good friend Bette Davis might say, the night gets bumpier as it goes along.

Looped by Matthew Lombardo   
January 18 – February 10, 2019 
During the Summer of 1965, an inebriated Tallulah Bankhead entered a Los Angeles recording studio in an effort to re-record (or “loop”) a few lines of dialogue from her final film Die! Die! My Darling. Though Bankhead's outsized personality dominates the play, the dramatic comedy involves her battle of wills with film editor Danny Miller, a conservative man who guards his own deep secret.

“A seductive, funny and frequently moving piece.” —The Hollywood Reporter
“Scores of zingers, one-liners, retorts and anecdotes leaves the audience roaring so loud the actors often struggle to be heard!” — Daily Variety

The View Upstairs, The New Smash Hit Musical by Max Vernon 
March 8 – March 31, 2019
This provocative new musical pulls you inside the UpStairs Lounge, a vibrant '70s gay bar in New Orleans French Quarter.  In 1973, the bar was torched by a vengeful customer killing 34 patrons in the worst LGBTQ disaster in US history at the time.   There was little news coverage of the event and nobody was ever prosecuted for the crime.  

This forgotten community comes to life when a young fashion designer from 2017 buys the abandoned space, setting off an exhilarating journey of seduction and self-exploration that Entertainment Weekly calls “a moving homage to LGBT culture, past and present.” Filled with “beautiful love songs performed by a soulful ensemble cast” (The New Yorker), it's “an eye-popping roller coaster for the visual senses” with “a jambalaya of sexed-up tunes!  Sung by an outstanding cast, The View UpStairs has all of the ingredients for an iconic cult phenomenon!” (Edge Media Network).

Pageant! by Albert Evans, Bill Russell, and Frank Kelly
April 19 – May 12, 2019 
Pageant is a pageant. Judges selected from the audience actually vote and determine the winner who, therefore, may be different at each performance. The show takes its shots not by mocking the pageant from the outside, but by being an actual contest. The six contestants compete for the title of Miss Glamouresse (Glamouresse being a cosmetics company). Miss Deep South, Miss West Coast, Miss Great Plains, Miss Bible Belt, Miss Industrial Northeast, and Miss Texas; and compete in evening gowns, talent, swim-wear and spokes-modeling, plus the finalists answer actual calls from the Glamouresse Beauty Crisis Hotline.  All emceed by perennial beauty contest host “Frankie Cavalier”.

Single ticket prices for each production will be $35 for Friday and Saturday 8 PM performances and $32 for Sunday 2 PM Matinee performances, plus a $2 per ticket facility fee.

Season Tickets go on sale on June1, 2018. Patrons will save 20% off single ticket prices by purchasing Season Tickets. That’s one production for free! 
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SEASON TICKET SUBSCRIPTION PRICES

  • Five Production Friday or Saturday Evening Series: $ 140 each plus $10 facility fee
  • Five Production Sunday Matinee Series: $ 128 each plus $10 facility fee

Season Tickets can be ordered online at www.desertroseplayhouse.org or by calling DRP’s Box Office at 760-202-3000 beginning June 1, 2018.  Single tickets for each production will go on sale approximately 3 weeks prior to each production’s opening.