Broadway legend Chita Rivera dies at 91

Chita Rivera, who electrified Broadway levels over six many years in reveals together with “West Aspect Story” and “Chicago” as one of many foremost entertainers of her era, died Tuesday at age 91, her publicist mentioned. Rivera – a singer, dancer and actress – died in New York after a “transient sickness,” her daughter Lisa Mordente mentioned in a press release launched by publicist Merle Frimark.

Educated in voice, piano and ballet from a younger age, Rivera was dancing on Broadway earlier than she was 20 and saved at all of it the way in which into her early 80s. Rivera grew to become probably the most nominated actors within the historical past of the Tony Awards, Broadway’s highest prizes, with 10 nods. In 2002 she earned Kennedy Middle honors – a prime US arts distinction – and was feted on the White Home in 2009 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Sensual and with a brassy stage presence, Rivera performed a few of Broadway’s most acclaimed roles and labored below legendary skills together with Leonard Bernstein, Bob Fosse, Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins.

She and fellow actress Rita Moreno paved the way in which for different stars of Puerto Rican descent, akin to actor-songwriter-playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda of “Hamilton” fame, to beat Broadway. “The trailblazer for PR on Broadway,” Miranda wrote of Rivera on Instagram Tuesday. “She IS magnificent, not prepared for the previous tense simply but.”

Rivera earned the 1957 breakout position of Anita in “West Aspect Story,” the 20^th century American adaptation of the Shakespeare story “Romeo and Juliet,” which made her a star and earned her a primary Tony nomination. However when the movie was made, the position of Anita went to Moreno. It was the primary however not the final time a serious Hollywood position would elude Rivera after she lit up the stage in the identical half.

Broadway glory

Born on the top of the Nice Melancholy on January 23, 1933, within the US capital Washington, Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero was certainly one of 5 youngsters of a Catholic couple. Her father, a US Navy musician, died when she was seven.

At age 11 she enrolled in an area ballet faculty, and at 16 auditioned for the famend College of American Ballet run by George Balanchine and traveled to New York Metropolis after profitable a scholarship. After three years of coaching, Rivera sought small Broadway roles as a dancer. In search of to downplay her ethnicity, she modified her identify to Chita O’Hara, earlier than finally deciding on Chita Rivera.

Nonetheless, she typically felt misplaced, recalling in her 2023 e book “Chita: A Memoir” what she noticed round her at an early audition: “Standing subsequent to me… have been leggy, busty blondes in body-revealing attire with slashes of crimson lipstick highlighting their fairly faces.

“And right here was I, quick, darkish, wearing a black skirt and leotards, and with a nostril like ‘a rooster’s butt.'” However a fierce dedication noticed her via, together with an audacious try to department into singing elements. After “West Aspect Story,” Rivera received the lead a part of Rose in “Bye Bye, Birdie,” starring reverse Dick van Dyke within the charming musical.

In 1975, Rivera starred as Velma Kelly in “Chicago” reverse Gwen Verdon as Roxie Hart within the musical directed by legendary Bob Fosse. She would later make a cameo within the 2002 movie model. “Chita’s affect, heat, and other-worldly expertise will encourage us at all times. Tonight’s present is for her,” mentioned the official social media account for the most recent Broadway revival of “Chicago.”

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