Cynthia Erivo Live performance Reopens Historic Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs

Discovering the best artist to reopen the historic Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs may need appeared like a tall order, not less than if the 89-year-old venue’s new operators needed to the touch each doable vital base for a refurbishment-celebrating gala. Somebody whose live performance repertoire touches on huge many years of musical and show-biz historical past, however who additionally occurs to be completely and unmistakably of the second? An acclaimed classicist of kinds, and, by the way in which, a present celebrity? There may be actually just one needle in that haystack, and so they acquired her: Cynthia Erivo.

The Plaza formally reopened Monday evening after a two-year, $34 million renovation with a live performance that was as spectacular because it wanted to be, given the sense of event, and likewise was as intimate because it wanted to be, on condition that the theater is not a monstrous venue, at a modest 700 seats. Erivo’s efficiency greater than match all these payments, with the “Depraved” singer-actress getting in loads of time with the complete brassiness of the 20-piece-plus Palm Springs Pops Orchestra but in addition doing numbers that stripped issues all the way down to a four-piece jazz combo and even simply piano accompaniment. It was a present that felt epic or quietly in-your-face from second to second… not completely not like the Plaza itself, a 1936 atmospheric gem that skirts the road between neighborhood theater and film palace.

As gala because the night was marketed and turned out to be, Erivo famous that there have been some moments within the final week when she thought the present won’t go on.

“It has been a 12 months,” Erivo advised the gang after opening the present with the promissory “I Put a Spell on You.” “It has been busy, and it has been eventful, and it has been great, and it has been loopy. After which it acquired slightly scary a pair weeks in the past after I misplaced my voice. And so when that occurred, I stored pondering, oh my God, I actually wish to come right here and sing to you. About three days in the past, I then needed to open up the Thanksgiving Day parade. However the day earlier than that, my voice was not again.”

Even post-Thanksgiving, she was struggling. “This is the reason I consider that miracles occur,” she continued, providing some ideas on the inevitability of issues that had been meant to be. “We had been right here yesterday. We had been rehearsing, and I actually wasn’t positive that I may do the issues that I needed to do with a few of these songs, and…” A beat. “The solar got here out, and I may sing.”

The theme of thanksgiving, with a small T, was the important thing. “I need us to have a extremely good evening tonight. And it takes you dropping one thing to understand how a lot it means to you… And I’ve at all times recognized, however I actually understood, what it means for me to have the ability to sing to you.” She continued, “I need us to have a extremely, actually good evening (as) we rejoice reopening this place, a spot the place artwork can exist, the place you get to take a seat beneath the celebs, and I get to sing to you.”

(The “beneath the celebs” half referred to the design, an atmospheric theater within the ’20s/’30s type meant to signify an open courtyard, with representations of small buildings alongside the left and proper partitions and stars constructed into the ceiling, like a smaller model of the Arlington in Santa Barbara or the Avalon on Catalina, to call the 2 nearest comparable examples.)

From each doable indication, Erivo was in a position to “do the issues that I needed to do” along with her materials, which ranged from old-school requirements like “At Final” and “Feeling Good” to pop and soul classics of the ’60s and ’70s like “Pure Girl” and “The First Time Ever I Noticed Your Face” to Prince and/or Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Erivo’s live shows, of which there have been solely a handful this previous summer time, usually don’t embrace materials from both her solo albums of authentic songs (together with the wonderful one she put out in 2025, “I Forgive You”) or “Depraved.”

However the elephant within the room was acknowledged on the very finish when, for an encore, Erivo did a medley that she could have solely achieved as soon as earlier than (in accordance with setlists.fm): a lyrical cowl of John Lennon’s “Think about” that led, ever so tenderly and tentatively, into… may it’s, from these transitory notes?… sure, it may… the softest and sweetest “Defying Gravity” ever. Anybody attending Erivo reveals sooner or later ought to under no circumstances take it as a assure that that may once more make it into the set, however for the thundrously appreciative Plaza crowd, not less than, she was prepared to go there along with her cinematic signature music, for a few heat, un-airborn, down-to-earth minutes on the shut.

It could be robust to say that this “oh, by the way in which” partial rendering of “Defying Gravity” was not a spotlight, however that deliriously subdued feel-good denouement had loads of competitors from the succession of excessive factors that peppered her two-and-a-half-hour (together with intermission) efficiency.

Among the many beautiful moments had been an Act 2-opening rendering of Blood, Sweat & Tears’ pre-David Clayton Thomas ballad “I’ll Love You Extra Than You Ever Know” that would nearly rely as that basic’s definitive spin, and a “First Time Ever” that might be stated to offer Roberta Flack a run for her cash, if to say that may not be committing heresy.

Sarcastically, for somebody recognized for taking part in flying results on the massive display screen, what occurs when Erivo is actually unharnessed is that she will be able to’t assist herself from getting as little as doable. That’s in her vocals, often — she likes to shock individuals ready for her to hit even greater notes by playfully seeing how low she will be able to go, each occasionally — but in addition fairly actually in her physicality. Crouching nearly appears to be her pure performing state, as if she had been stalking the melodies she instructions and consumes. Kneeling on the left aspect of the stage, sitting cross-legged on the fitting, it didn’t matter…

Promising early within the present that she can be not on “good conduct,” Erivo vowed: “I’ll be on the ground many instances. I’ll be crawling typically. … I’ve no disgrace.” She made good on all that, though she was additionally buoyant sufficient to make a journey up and down each the theater’s aisles for “Pure Girl.”

The mixture of the Palm Springs Pops Orchestra, performed by Anthony Parnther, and the jazz combo, led by music director Mark Meadows, made for great dynamics: a full, classic Las Vegas showroom extravaganza at instances, an after-hours membership in others.

And it’s not to say these two dozen or so musicians didn’t absolutely impress or earn their hold, however it’s price noting that all of them had loads of moments to relaxation and calm down through the set. That’s as a result of Erivo is given to prolonged a cappella trills, particularly at the start or ending of a music, which can be not less than as magical as something that’s formally occurring with the complete ensemble. (Parnther glancing over his shoulder, smiling, as he seemed to see whether or not Erivo would possibly certainly be wrapping issues up — however most likely in no hurry himself to conduct a downbeat — grew to become an nearly comical sight.) To wrap up “Feeling Good,” earlier than the ultimate riffs resumed, Erivo vamped for a full minute and 40 seconds (however who’s counting?). That improv was really the music title made flesh.

However there was nothing as spontaneously magnificent because the wildly prolonged improvisation that went down later, within the second act. Erivo was premiering her interpretation of a neo-soul quantity from 2019, Mykal Kilmore’s “Let Me Go,” saying, “I’ve at all times needed to do it for an viewers. And so, I made a decision that you’d be my guinea pigs.” The easy studying of the music was sturdy sufficient (and a pleasant detour into the comparatively obscure amid an evening of in any other case fairly recognizable materials). However then one thing occurred that you might pretty describe as, properly, witchy: Quite that cease the tune at its pure conclusion, Erivo let the orchestra slip away and went into an improvisation along with her MD and pianist, Meadows, that lasted for 11 incantatory minutes. This may occasionally have been a really formal event with a really formal goal, however for these 11 minutes, she was very a lot going someplace else, and taking the enthralled Plaza patrons along with her.

Simply taking a look at her tatted-up look, it’s straightforward to know Erivo is a one-of-one, particularly as performers who lean towards the cabaret type go. However her singularity actually grew to become obvious when, in an evening very a lot dedicated to crowd-pleasing, Erivo took a while to please her personal innermost muse, trusting that the gang that had paid 4 figures every to attend would go alongside for the detour. Everybody did, delightedly, and it felt as physics-defying as something she’s achieved on display screen.

Cynthia Erivo setlist on 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 Method
Why
A Track for You
Feeling Good

Set 2
I Love You Extra Than You’ll Ever Know
The First Time Ever I Noticed Your Face
At Final
(You Make Me Really feel Like a) Pure Girl
Let Me Go/improvisation
Nothing Compares 2 U

Encore
Think about/Defying Gravity