Tony winner Darren Criss will headline an anniversary concert at the Palm Springs Plaza Theatre on December 1, marking exactly one year since the historic venue reopened after a $34 million renovation. The 7 p.m. show at 128 S. Palm Canyon Drive also kicks off the theater's 90th anniversary celebration, with tickets going on sale Friday at 10 a.m.
The concert date is no coincidence. According to MyNewsLA.com, the 700-seat theater returned to operation after sitting dark for more than a decade, with general manager John Bolton noting the theater reopened a year earlier after more than ten years of closure. That reopening night, held Dec. 1, 2025, was itself a sold-out gala headlined by Tony and Grammy winner Cynthia Erivo alongside the Palm Springs Pops Orchestra, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A Landmark Built for Hollywood's Golden Age
The Plaza Theatre first opened its doors on Dec. 12, 1936, with the premiere of Camille starring Greta Garbo, per MyNewsLA.com, and it will mark its 90th anniversary on that same date this December. Decades later, the theater became a regular broadcast origin point during the 1940s Golden Age of Radio for national shows hosted by Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra, according to the California Office of Historic Preservation, cementing Palm Springs' image as a Hollywood getaway.
From 1990 to 2014, the venue was home to The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, a long-running revue featuring performers aged 55 and older that drew roughly 170,000 visitors annually before financial troubles shuttered it, as reported by The Palm Springs Post. The show had even been featured in the Oscar-nominated 1997 documentary Still Kicking: The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, the Post notes. In December 2025, the National Park Service officially added the theater to the National Register of Historic Places, recognizing it as a rare surviving 1930s Spanish Colonial Revival atmospheric theater designed by architect Harry J. Williams, according to the Architectural Resources Group.
How a $34 Million Restoration Came Together
Philanthropy got the rescue effort moving in October 2021, when Palm Springs resident and Emmy-winning Frasier co-creator David Lee pledged $5 million toward the restoration, per KESQ. That gift helped spur subsequent state grants, city commitments, and private donations that funded the overhaul. More recently, in February 2025, local philanthropist Brad Prescott contributed $1 million through the Prescott Foundation and created a dollar-for-dollar matching challenge grant of up to $1 million to support the theater's ongoing endowment, according to Engage Palm Springs.
During the multi-year renovation, preservation architects removed retrofitted plaster to uncover the theater's original 1936 decorative concrete proscenium and upgraded the auditorium ceiling with LED lighting designed to mimic sunset and starry night skies, the National Trust for Historic Preservation reports. Williams had originally designed the interior to resemble a midnight Spanish village square, according to the same organization. The restoration itself was carried out through a partnership involving the Palm Springs Plaza Theatre Foundation, Oak View Group and the city of Palm Springs, MyNewsLA.com reports.
Balancing Star Power With Civic Use
Day-to-day operations and talent booking now fall to Oak View Group, which also runs Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, under a management agreement approved in February 2024 that reserves 21 days per year for city civic programming, according to MyNewsLA.com. The restored theater is projected to generate roughly $40 million annually in local economic activity and draw about 135,000 attendees across more than 130 performances in its inaugural season, per the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Criss brings substantial star power to the milestone bill. He's known for his role in the television series Glee and won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for his performance in American Crime Story, according to MyNewsLA.com. He also received a Tony Award for his work in the Broadway musical Maybe Happy Ending, having won the 2025 Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Musical as Oliver — becoming the first Asian American actor to win in that category, as reported by Playbill.
Tickets for the Dec. 1 anniversary concert go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at palmspringsplazatheatre.com, according to MyNewsLA.com. The show fits a pattern the venue has leaned into since reopening, pairing marquee names with civic and community dates, a balance Hoodline previously reported extends to hosting the Palm Springs International Film Festival as a screening venue.
