The Playboy Theater is a piece of Miami Beach history with a beating pulse.
Back in the early 1970’s Playboy Enterprises bought the Castle Hotel and dropped millions, transforming it into the Playboy Plaza Hotel and Club.
Playboy was staking a claim on Miami Beach’s jet -set identity at the exact moment that identity was being invented.
The kind of unapologetic era that gets mythologized: packed houses, celebrity residences, the sort of music, money and spectacle collided nightly, hosting legends like Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Jr., The Supremes, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Sonny & Cher and Tina Turner.
The theater later brought in Broadway touring productions like Phantom of the Opera, Evita and 42nd Street.
Gloria Estefan’s video of her 2012 hit “Hotel Nacional” was shot there.
Today, the 26,000 square foot venue is stripped to the studs. The glory is gone and it’s officially for sale now for $6.5 million.
A relic of Miami’s history from the 70’s and beyond.
Continue with Google