Celebrity Theatre

Beverly Hills architect Perry Neuschatz designed the 196 foot-diameter building as a multipurpose conference center. The theatre opened on January 13, 1964 with the musical "South Pacific" starring Betsy Palmer. It was renovated significantly in 1995. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. The stage is 30 feet in diameter and completely round, exposed to the audience on all sides. An unusual feature of the theater is that the entire stage can turn through a complete revolution at a speed of up to 0.5 revolutions per hour, thus allowing everyone in the audience to see every part of the stage at some point during a two hour performance. None of the 2650 seats in the theater are more than 70 feet from the stage. The theater is equipped with an orchestra pit and can be reconfigured as a proscenium stage if necessary, although this reduces the seating capacity by 25% to 50% depending on configuration. This venue was once known as "Phoenix Star Theatre". Also credited as "The Celebrity Theater, Phoenix, AZ".