Chita Rivera in Could 1977. Night Normal/Getty Photographs disguise caption
toggle caption
Night Normal/Getty Photographs
Chita Rivera in Could 1977.
Night Normal/Getty Photographs
Chita Rivera, who appeared in additional than 20 Broadway musicals over six many years, has died, in accordance with her daughter, Lisa Mordente. The three-time Tony Award-winning Broadway legend created indelible roles — Anita in West Aspect Story, Rose in Bye Bye Birdie, Velma Kelly in Chicago, and Aurora in Kiss of the Spiderwoman. She was 91.
Rivera “was every thing Broadway was meant to be,” says Laurence Maslon, co-producer of the 2004 PBS sequence Broadway: The American Musical. “She was spontaneous and compelling and proficient as hell for many years and many years on Broadway. When you noticed her, you by no means forgot her.”
You may assume Chita Rivera was a Broadway child from childhood — however she wasn’t. Born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero in Washington, D.C., she advised an viewers at a Display screen Actors Guild Basis interview that she was a tomboy and drove her mom loopy: “She mentioned, ‘I am placing you in ballet class in order that we will rein in a few of that vitality.’ So I’m very grateful.”
Rivera took to ballet so utterly that she obtained a full scholarship to the College of American Ballet in New York. However when she went with a buddy to an audition for the tour of the Broadway present Name Me Madam, Rivera obtained the job. Goodbye ballet, howdy Broadway. In 1957, she landed her breakout position, Anita in West Aspect Story, with a rating by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.
“Listening to ‘America’ was simply mind-boggling, with that rhythm,” Rivera advised NPR in 2007 for the musical’s fiftieth anniversary. “I simply could not wait to do it. It was such a problem. And, being Latin, you recognize, it was a welcoming sound.”
Chita Rivera (middle) works with choreographer Jerome Robbins (second from left) and her fellow West Aspect Story forged members in a rehearsal on July 22, 1957. AP disguise caption
toggle caption
AP
West Aspect Story allowed Rivera to disclose not solely her athletic dancing chops, however her appearing and singing chops. She remembers Leonard Bernstein educating her the rating himself: “I keep in mind sitting subsequent to Lenny and his beginning with ‘A Boy Like That,’ educating it to me and me saying, ‘I am going to by no means do that, I can not hit these notes, I do not know learn how to hit these notes.’ “
However she did hit them, and with the ability to sing, act and dance made her a useful Broadway commodity, mentioned Maslon. “She was the primary nice triple risk. Broadway administrators like Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse noticed the necessity to have performers who may do all three issues and do them very well.”
And, from 1960 to 2013, she headlined some large hits — in addition to some main flops. In 1986, Rivera was in a critical taxi accident. Her left leg was shattered, and the medical doctors mentioned she’d by no means dance once more, however she did — simply in a different way.
Chita Rivera (proper) and Michelle Veintimilla carry out on the Tony Awards at Radio Metropolis Music Corridor on June 7, 2015, in New York Metropolis. Theo Wargo/Getty Photographs for Tony Awards Productions disguise caption
toggle caption
Theo Wargo/Getty Photographs for Tony Awards Productions
“All of us should be sensible,” she advised NPR in 2005. “I do not do flying splits anymore. I do not do again flips and all of the stuff that I used to do. You need to know one thing? I do not need to.”
However her stardom by no means diminished. And the accolades flowed: She gained a number of Tony Awards, together with one for lifetime achievement, a Kennedy Middle honor, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Rivera did not do a lot tv or movie — she was utterly dedicated to the stage, says Maslon.
“That is why they’re known as Broadway legends,” he says. “Hopefully you get to see them stay since you’ll by no means get to see them in one other type in fairly the identical approach.”
Chita Rivera receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-President Barack Obama throughout a ceremony on the White Home on Aug. 12, 2009. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs disguise caption
toggle caption
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs
