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By the point I first noticed Chita Rivera stay, within the unique solid of the unique manufacturing of Chicago, she had been a Broadway star for twenty years. The present was terrific, nevertheless it had the texture of a sort of valedictory for Chita and her equally venerable costar, Gwen Verdon. In 1975, taking part in antiheroines from the Nineteen Twenties, these sensational dancers appeared ever-so-slightly like relics of a Broadway period that was receding into the previous. They have been, in Chita’s case, simply previous 40, and in Verdon’s, simply previous 50, and presumably on the tail finish of their careers as main girls. I felt very fortunate to have skilled the winsomeness of Verdon’s distinctive stage presence and the electrical energy conveyed in Rivera’s each transfer, as a result of it appeared like they have been a dying breed.
Because it turned out, Chicago was certainly Verdon’s final look in a Broadway present. However one way or the other, amazingly, Chita simply went on dancing and singing and appearing in a single musical after one other. She was nonetheless at it 40—40!—years later, in 2015, once I watched, awestruck, as she took imperious command of the Lyceum Theatre in Kander and Ebb’s The Go to. Enjoying the “unkillable” moneybags Claire, she may nonetheless kick these wonderful legs right here and float balletically there, sharp and kinetic as ever, utilizing her complete physique, her distinctive singing, and her eager appearing chops to create another completely indelible character in a group that had begun with Anita in West Aspect Story.
Anita and Chita’s different early dazzlers—Rose in Bye Bye Birdie and Anyanka within the principally forgotten 1964 musical Bajour—have been recognized to me from visitor spots on TV selection reveals, and it appeared I’d been watching Chita be indelible my entire life. Whether or not she was flipping her skirt for Robbins or cocking her head for Fosse or simply extending an arm for any of the opposite choreographers she labored with, her approach was impeccable, her power ferocious. Her dancing had each magnificence and directness, qualities not usually discovered together. And it wasn’t simply when she had larger-than-life roles like Claire to chew into. In Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, she was simply Chita, a hard-working member of the ensemble who’d lucked into some fabulous reveals and labored with some fabulous individuals. But you couldn’t take your eyes off her.
When Chita was among the many recipients of the 2002 Kennedy Heart Honors, Hal Prince, in his introduction, described her as a kind of individuals who “carry round their very own highlight.” And that highlight illuminated everybody Chita performed, whether or not the far-from-glamorous proprietor of the title area in The Rink or the embodiment of showbiz razzle-dazzle in Kiss of the Spider Lady—each of which received her Tony Awards.
Talking of awards, you’ll have observed that I’m calling her Chita as a substitute of the extra journalistically formal Rivera. It’s not as a result of we have been buddies. (In keeping with her memoir, her buddies referred to as her Cheet.) However in 2017, the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards, which yearly honored New York Metropolis theater dancers and choreographers chosen by a committee I chaired, morphed into the Chita Rivera Awards; for the primary time, I received to see her offstage and off-script. The powerhouse charisma didn’t want a script. The exceptional amalgam of magnificence and directness that had struck me when she carried out was not a efficiency. It was her.
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