“I know this story from the liver, from the gizzard, from deep inside,” she said. Creative team includes playwright Terrence McNally and director/choreographer Graciela Daniele, both of whom are interviewed in Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ to Do. Her co-star was the late, great actor Roger Rees, who played the role of Anton Schell. She beckoned, teasingly, when he exited — “We’re coming with you” — making him blush like a schoolboy. 1983: Nominated for a Tony Award for her role as Queen in Merlin on Broadway. 1954: After its opening on Broadway, Rivera is cast in the Abe Burrows Broadway musical Can-Can, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and choreography by Michael Kidd. Brent Carver and Anthony Crivello co-starred. Peter Gennaro, the co-choreographer of West Side Story, did the musical staging. The show is directed by Bob Fosse with music by Kander and Ebb. Guest appearance in May on Maurice Chevalier television special. Photo: New York Public Library. Wonderful on Broadway. “It’s not brand-new, because my life’s not brand-new,” she said of the show. Gower Champion is choreographer. “A couple of months ago, I was talking like this,” she said, lowering her already dusky sub-alto to a basso rasp. Among the honorees, Rivera and actor Sidney Poitier are the only artists. Marries dancer and West Side Story cast member Tony Mordente (marriage ends 1966). Chita Rivera in Great Performances – Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ to Do, 2015. See a West Side Story excerpt from Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ to Do. “When I’m not doing something regularly — and that to me means working every day — I watch too much television,” Rivera said. “I keep her well fed.”). Chita Rivera wins her first Tony Award for The Rink, 1984. Co-stars include magician Doug Henning and Nathan Lane. Photo: Ken Howard. “Big fan,” he managed before darting off, a star-struck grin on his face. Chita RiveraFrom May 27 to June 4 at Feinstein’s/54 Below; 54below.com. Photo: Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage). 1955: Rivera is a member of the Off-Broadway Shoestring Revue, which included Bea Arthur. Later, as discussion turned again to the many legends she has collaborated with, she said, “I wanted this to be a good story about Bob and Gwen. It runs June 3, 1975 through August 27, 1977. Chita Rivera Is Happy to Look Back. Her father hailed from Puerto Rico and her mother was American and Scottish. Fri., Nov. 6 at 9 pm on PBS (check local listings). 1956: Co-stars with Sammy Davis Jr. in Mr. in plays, films, concerts and television specials, 2015: Tony Nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for role of Claire Zachanassian in The Visit, by Kander and Ebb, with book by Terrence McNally and directed by John Doyle. She treasures working with Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim on this musical. During the golden age of television variety programs, Rivera was a guest on virtually every must-see show, including those hosted by Maurice Chevalier, Judy Garland and Carol Burnett. 1957: West Side Story opens September 26 at Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway, with Rivera giving her star-making performance as Anita. The subject of FX’s warts-and-all bio-series “Fosse/Verdon” was raised. The musical opened the Mandalay Bay Hotel and was the first full-length, two-act show in Las Vegas. At 86, Chita Rivera has yet to endure that career phase Stephen Sondheim identified in “I’m Still Here” as, “Sorry, I thought you were whoozis/Whatever happened to her?” Heading into an office above the cabaret venue Feinstein’s/54 Below, where she’ll begin a string of performances on Monday, the musical theater veteran walked with a classical dancer’s line, still suggesting the grace and fire that secured her breakout role as Anita in the original production of “West Side Story,” one of numerous plum parts she has introduced over more than six decades. 2009: Chita Rivera is among 16 recipients of The Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. Subscribe to the Great Performances Newsletter, More From Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ to Do (5), Clip | “Carousel” from Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Clip | Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli in The Rink, Clip | “Nowadays” from Chicago the Musical, Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ to Do - Preview, Chita Rivera Biography and Career Timeline. 1975: Plays Velma Kelly in the original Broadway cast of Chicago. The production was delayed to accommodate her schedule after the birth of her daughter. Photo by Martha Swope. Reprises role in London’s West End production in 1961. 1964: Stars as Anyanka in Bajour, which opened November 23 and ran through June 12, 1965. Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ to Do airs on Great Performances: But She Never Stops Marching Forward. 1984: Wins her first Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical as Anna in The Rink, co-starring with Liza Minnelli in Kander and Ebb’s 10th production. It becomes more distilled as the years go by.”, While Kander also praised his friend and colleague’s enduring discipline and focus, Rivera herself insisted she can easily slip “into my lazy mode” while at home outside New York City, where she lives with her daughter Lisa Mordente, two bull mastiffs and a “feral cat.” (“Thank God, she’s not brought me any dead animals,” Rivera said of the cat. The most recent — the embittered romantic Claire Zachanassian in “The Visit,” crafted by her frequent collaborators John Kander, Fred Ebb and Terrence McNally — earned Rivera a 10th Tony nomination in 2015. (Rivera performs “Carousel” from the revue in this web-exclusive footage from Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ to Do.). 1953: Replacing Onna White, Rivera is cast as principal dancer in her first Broadway show, Guys and Dolls. Rivera knew and worked with fellow musical star Gwen Verdon and the choreographer Bob Fosse, most famously on “Chicago.” Had she been tuning in? 1933: Born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero on January 23 in Washington, DC. Liza Minnelli (l.), Chita Rivera (r.) in The Rink, 1984. 2003: Nominated for Tony for her performance in Broadway revival of Nine, which also stars Antonio Banderas, Laura Benanti, Jane Krakowski, Mary Stuart Masterson among others. Let’s hope — I have goose pimples just thinking about it.”. April 1986: Rivera suffers a severe injury in a car accident, breaking the tibula and fibula of her left leg. Rivera meets Gwen Verdon for the first time, who stars as Claudine. 1952: At age 19 she is cast in chorus of her first national tour — Call Me Madam starring Elaine Stritch. Rivera receives Tony Award nomination. May 20, 1997. Fellow honorees that year were James Levine, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Simon, and James Earl Jones. Credit: Photofest. Admitting she’s “not mad for” the 1961 movie, in which Rita Moreno was cast as Anita, Rivera said of Spielberg, “If there’s anybody that can do it, I believe he can, because he’s always dedicated to doing excellent work. 1949: At age 16 she auditions for choreographer George Balanchine and wins scholarship to American School of Ballet in New York City. “It’s a serious story, and a story that still exists. The musical theater veteran, 86, will nod at her signature roles in new performances at Feinstein’s/54 Below. Opens West Side Story in London’s West End, reprising her role of Anita. She’s including at least two numbers from “The Visit,” though that musical — based on a play by Friedrich Durrenmatt, about a woman seeking vengeance on a man who betrayed her decades ago — didn’t enjoy the level of success that greeted her other Kander and Ebb credits, notably “Chicago” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”, Rivera still believes it could have another life in London, where she performed a pair of concerts earlier this year. 1969: Chita plays dancer Nickie in the film Sweet Charity, directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse and starring Shirley MacLlaine. Share in the comments, below. But then, what do you do with Jerome Robbins’s steps?” (The man who conceived the musical and directed and choreographed the original stage production was fired while working on the first film; the ballet wunderkind and Tony winner Justin Peck, who worked on the 2018 screen thriller “Red Sparrow,” is choreographing the new one.). The career of dancer, singer and actress Chita Rivera has unfolded on Broadway, London's West End, national television and on the silver screen. 1966: Rivera plays Jenny, the Lotte Lenya role in a touring production of the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht musical Threepenny Opera. 1993: Rivera’s Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical is her second Tony and one of seven wins out of 11 nominations for Kiss of the Spider Woman, by Kander and Ebb, with book by playwright Terrence McNally. Dick Van Dyke, Chita Rivera in Bye Bye Birdie. 2002: Receives Kennedy Center Honor for her lifetime of contributions to American culture. Chita Rivera Is Happy to Look Back. What are your favorite roles and performances? For more of Chita Rivera’s performance history Rivera will nod to this history, as she has done in previous cabaret and concert performances, at Feinstein’s. President Obama quipped that Rivera, born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero, “knows the adversity that comes with a difficult name.” She releases solo studio album, And Now I Swing.

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