“Hamilton” to get spoofed at Desert Star this year

Missed getting tickets to “Hamilton?” No worries. Desert Star Playhouse has got you covered… sort of. Already kicking off their 29th year, Desert Star has a full year’s slate-worth of parodies, including a takeoff of the popular Broadway hit “Hamilton.”

Desert Star’s Artistic Director Scott Holman said, “The biggest compliment that people make to me is…that they sometimes don’t even know what show they’re coming to see, they just know they’re going to laugh hard and be completely entertained for a couple hours. That trust is the highest compliment one could make, and something I never stop working for or looking forward to.”

“Pirates of the Scaribean” is currently underway and playing to sold-out audiences nightly. Next up is “Spamilton,” a spoof of the popular Broadway show soon to be playing in Utah. “Law and Disorder” is another show with lots of familiar characters and themes based on the popular television crime drama. “Beauty and the Fantastic Beast” will take on elements of all the adventure and fantasy, crossing the paths of Belle and Newt Scamander with send-ups of many movies and stage shows. Desert Star’s annual Christmas offering will be “How the Grouch Stole Christmas,” one of their most requested. This season the theatre has been able to have many of their most popular long-time regular actors and actresses return to its stage.

“Every year we’re looking forward to providing our patrons a night of nothing but escape through laughter and uplifting entertainment,” said Holman.

Annually, Desert Star produces multiple new shows, never seen anywhere. According to Holman, the theatre had considerable attendance at several plays. “‘Captain American Fork’ and ‘Wicked-er’ were truly huge hits for us. We gained a lot of new patrons who had no idea what we’d been doing all these years and couldn’t believe they’d been missing it.”

Of course, Desert Star is also unique in that it is a dinner show. While pizza has been the marquee menu star, they are trying some new things this year. 

“I challenged our kitchen staff to make patrons start to look forward to our food as much as they do our shows,” said Holman. “A tall order, but we have the best food offerings of any theater in the country.

“Most people don’t realize that we are the only theater in Utah that presents all-new shows written for our Utah audiences. You’re seeing something only available at Desert Star when you’re spending the evening with us.”

This year Desert Star added new state-of-the-art lighting and sound, as well as animatronic details to their shows. 

“We continue to focus on making each of our shows bigger and better than the last,” said Holman. They also continue to offer award-winning youth theater productions and will be offering some additional music and variety-type shows in their intimate 220-seat theater across the hall from their Playhouse Theater. 

“If you keep your eyes open, we have a lot of great shows in our second theater. In fact, before they were really famous, The Band Perry performed an afternoon show here to showcase themselves to local radio. And Jon Schmidt is a friend of ours and performed here regularly before hitting it big with The Piano Guys and has hinted that he’ll be back someday,” explained Holman.