Even a 5.3 magnitude earthquake couldn’t damper the Christmas spirit at this year’s Divas and Desserts.
This year’s edition of Divas and Desserts took place Friday night at the MCM Fundome just an hour after an earthquake was felt around the Permian Basin.
However, any ground shaking likely came from the energy inside the Fundome during the course of the evening as 12 local, talented women dazzled and entertained the audience members at this year’s fundraiser.
Audience members were left applauding as the divas sung and danced all over the stage, bringing the festive holiday mood to everyone in attendance with this year’s theme of “Home for the Holidays.”
“I think it was perfect,” Divas and Desserts Show Director Amanda Lopez said. “There were great and beautiful moments. There were funny moments and there were heartfelt moments. It was wonderful.”
Each diva performed a solo act which included a Christmas song while a few did a duet. There were also a few numbers by the entire cast of divas including the opening act of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
This was the fifth year of Divas and Desserts which also serves as a fundraiser for the Basin Theatre Works.
But it was the first edition of Divas and Desserts to take place since 2019. Divas and Desserts didn’t take place in 2020 or ’21 due to the pandemic.
“It was the perfect homecoming,” Lopez said. “It was great for the divas to be on stage again.”
The 12 divas that performed this year included Patsy Allen, Emily Baker, Krista Escamilla, Brittany Handlin, Sara Lillestol, Tina Mobley, Dana Ritter, Stephanie Rivas, Cindy Ward, Dawn Weaks, Kara Williams and Nikki Windham.
Most of the divas have performed in the past.
“It’s always so much to do this,” Baker said who was one of the divas making her return. “It’s a hectic process of putting this together. But once we get to it, we all just fall in love with it. We love each other. We love the whole process.”
Baker’s solo act included “Run Rudolph” and she also performed in a small group singing “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.”
“It’s so much fun,” Baker said of doing a Divas and Desserts Christmas themed show. “There are so many great songs. It’s hard to narrow it down. But it’s nostalgic for everyone.”
Like the rest of the divas, she was excited that this fundraiser was able to return this year.
“It was so great,” Baker said. “We weren’t sure we’d bring back Divas and Desserts but once we did, we were all on board and super excited.”
Other divas were doing this for the first time including Williams who performed “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me?”
“I loved it,” Williams said. “It was kind of hectic with this being around Christmas but all the other divas are so warm and sweet and they made it easy to come and enjoy it.”
Williams said she hopes to be back next year.
“I would love to do this again,” she said. “It gave me a chance to perform. I haven’t been able to perform in a long time. I was able to dust everything off and come back.”
Other numbers from the night included a cover of Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on An Open Fire)” by Rivas while Mobley performed “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.”
Allen and Ritter performed a duet of “Sisters” from the movie White Christmas.
For more information about Basin Theatre Works or to donate, go to https://tinyurl.com/yjwmhhvr.
