Finding the ideal artist to reopen the historic Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs might have seemed like a tall order, at least if the 89-year-old venue’s new operators wanted to touch every possible important base for a refurbishment-celebrating gala. Someone whose concert repertoire touches on vast decades of musical and show-biz history, but who also happens to be utterly and unmistakably of the moment? An acclaimed classicist of sorts, and, by the way, a current superstar? There is really only one needle in that haystack, and they got her: Cynthia Erivo.
The Plaza officially reopened Monday night after a two-year, $34 million renovation with a concert that was as spectacular as it needed to be, given the sense of occasion, and also was as intimate as it needed to be, given that the theater is not a monstrous venue, at a modest 700 seats. Erivo’s performance more than fit all those bills, with the “Wicked” singer-actress getting in plenty of time with the full brassiness of the 20-piece-plus Palm Springs Pops Orchestra but also doing numbers that stripped things down to a four-piece jazz combo or even just piano accompaniment. It was a show that felt epic or quietly in-your-face from moment to moment… not totally unlike the Plaza itself, a 1936 atmospheric gem that skirts the line between neighborhood theater and movie palace.
As gala as the evening was advertised and turned out to be, Erivo noted that there were some moments in the last week when she thought the show might not go on.
“It has been a year,” Erivo told the crowd after opening the show with the promissory “I Put a Spell on You.” “It has been busy, and it has been eventful, and it has been wonderful, and it has been crazy. And then it got a little scary a couple weeks ago when I lost my voice. And so when that happened, I kept thinking, oh my God, I really want to come here and sing to you. About three days ago, I then had to open up the Thanksgiving Day parade. But the day before that, my voice was not back.”
Even post-Thanksgiving, she was struggling. “This is why I believe that miracles happen,” she continued, offering some thoughts on the inevitability of things that were meant to be. “We were here yesterday. We were rehearsing, and I really wasn’t sure that I could do the things that I wanted to do with some of these songs, and…” A beat. “The sun came out, and I could sing.”
The theme of thanksgiving, with a small T, was the key. “I want us to have a really good night tonight. And it takes you losing something to know how much it means to you… And I’ve always known, but I really understood, what it means for me to be able to sing to you.” She continued, “I want us to have a really, really good night (as) we celebrate reopening this place, a place where art can exist, where you get to sit under the stars, and I get to sing to you.”
(The “under the stars” part referred to the design, an atmospheric theater in the ’20s/’30s style meant to represent an open courtyard, with representations of small buildings along the left and right walls and stars built into the ceiling, like a smaller version of the Arlington in Santa Barbara or the Avalon on Catalina, to name the two nearest comparable examples.)
Cynthia Erivo performs at The Plaza Theatre on December 1, 2025
Tara Howard
From every possible indication, Erivo was able to “do the things that I wanted to do” with her material, which ranged from old-school standards like “At Last” and “Feeling Good” to pop and soul classics of the ’60s and ’70s like “Natural Woman” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” to Prince and/or Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Erivo’s concerts, of which there were only a handful this past summer, generally do not include material from either her solo albums of original songs (including the excellent one she put out in 2025, “I Forgive You”) or “Wicked.”
But the elephant in the room was recognized at the very end when, for an encore, Erivo did a medley that she may have only done once before (according to setlists.fm): a lyrical cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” that led, ever so tenderly and tentatively, into… could it be, from those transitory notes?… yes, it could… the softest and sweetest “Defying Gravity” ever. Anyone attending Erivo shows in the future should by no means take it as a guarantee that that will again make it into the set, but for the thundrously appreciative Plaza crowd, at least, she was willing to go there with her cinematic signature song, for a couple of warm, un-airborn, down-to-earth minutes at the close.
It would be tough to say that this “oh, by the way” partial rendering of “Defying Gravity” was not a highlight, but that deliriously subdued feel-good denouement had a lot of competition from the succession of high points that peppered her two-and-a-half-hour (including intermission) performance.
Among the exquisite moments were an Act 2-opening rendering of Blood, Sweat & Tears’ pre-David Clayton Thomas ballad “I’ll Love You More Than You Ever Know” that could just about count as that classic’s definitive spin, and a “First Time Ever” that could be said to give Roberta Flack a run for her money, if to say that would not be committing heresy.
Ironically, for someone known for participating in flying effects on the big screen, what happens when Erivo is truly unharnessed is that she can’t help herself from getting as low as possible. That’s in her vocals, occasionally — she likes to surprise people waiting for her to hit even higher notes by playfully seeing how low she can go, every once in a while — but also quite literally in her physicality. Crouching almost seems to be her natural performing state, as if she were stalking the melodies she commands and consumes. Kneeling on the left side of the stage, sitting cross-legged on the right, it didn’t matter…
Promising early in the show that she would be not on “good behavior,” Erivo vowed: “I’ll be on the floor many times. I’ll be crawling sometimes. … I have no shame.” She made good on all that, although she was also buoyant enough to take a trip up and down both the theater’s aisles for “Natural Woman.”
The combination of the Palm Springs Pops Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Parnther, and the jazz combo, led by music director Mark Meadows, made for wonderful dynamics: a full, vintage Las Vegas showroom extravaganza at times, an after-hours club in others.
And it is not to say these two dozen or so musicians did not fully impress or earn their keep, but it’s worth noting that they all had a lot of moments to rest and relax during the set. That’s because Erivo is given to extended a cappella trills, especially at the beginning or ending of a song, that are at least as magical as anything that is formally happening with the full ensemble. (Parnther glancing over his shoulder, smiling, as he looked to see whether Erivo might indeed be wrapping things up — but probably in no hurry himself to conduct a downbeat — became an almost comical sight.) To wrap up “Feeling Good,” before the final riffs resumed, Erivo vamped for a full minute and 40 seconds (but who’s counting?). That improv was truly the song title made flesh.
Cynthia Erivo performs at The Plaza Theatre on December 1, 2025
Tara Howard
But there was nothing as spontaneously magnificent as the wildly extended improvisation that went down later, in the second act. Erivo was premiering her interpretation of a neo-soul number from 2019, Mykal Kilmore’s “Let Me Go,” saying, “I’ve always wanted to do it for an audience. And so, I decided that you would be my guinea pigs.” The straightforward reading of the song was strong enough (and a nice detour into the relatively obscure amid a night of otherwise pretty recognizable material). But then something happened that you could fairly describe as, well, witchy: Rather that stop the tune at its natural conclusion, Erivo let the orchestra slip away and went into an improvisation with her MD and pianist, Meadows, that lasted for 11 incantatory minutes. This may have been a very formal occasion with a very formal purpose, but for those 11 minutes, she was very much going somewhere else, and taking the enthralled Plaza patrons with her.
Just looking at her tatted-up appearance, it’s easy to know Erivo is a one-of-one, especially as performers who lean toward the cabaret style go. But her singularity really became apparent when, in a night very much devoted to crowd-pleasing, Erivo took some time to please her own innermost muse, trusting that the crowd that had paid four figures each to attend would go along for the detour. Everyone did, delightedly, and it felt as physics-defying as anything she’s done on screen.
Cynthia Erivo setlist at the Plaza Theatre, Palm Springs, Dec. 1, 2025:
Set 1
I Put a Spell on You
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
Ain’t No Way
Why
A Song for You
Feeling Good
Set 2
I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
At Last
(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman
Let Me Go/improvisation
Nothing Compares 2 U
Encore
Imagine/Defying Gravity
