Neon and a restored marquee mark the Plaza Theatre at 128 South Palm Canyon Drive, the anchor of La Plaza and the most argued-over building in Palm Springs. It opened in December 1936 with the world premiere of Camille, starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor, and it went on to host premieres of stage work including My Fair Lady and The Music Man. The theatre went dormant in 1989, then filled again from 1990 through 2014 with The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, a revue of performers over the age of fifty that drew coverage from ABC's 20/20, The Today Show, the New York Times and NPR.
After the Follies closed, the building sat empty for a decade while the city, which owns it, worked out how to pay for a restoration. A campaign launched in 2019 and drew a $5 million gift from a former Frasier producer and $2 million more from an anonymous donor. The finished project ran to roughly $34 million, wrapped in November 2025, and the theatre reopened on December 1, 2025 with a gala headlined by Cynthia Erivo.
That marquee spent eleven years unlit, and it came back on in December 2025.