Ruth Leon recommends… Chita Rivera
Ruth Leon recommendsChita Rivera
A Broadway legend left us last week when Chita Rivera died at 91. In an era when every singer, dancer and actor talked about becoming “an all-round entertainer”, Chita really was.
Although she did movies and television and cabaret, she was the quintessential Broadway stage leading lady. Chita was the original everything and if we may be forgiven for our memories connecting primarily with her Anita in the original cast of West Side Story, think next of Sweet Charity, Kiss of the Spider Woman, all the other Broadway shows, above all Chicago. Chita Rivera was nominated for the Tony Award ten times, as either Best Featured Actress in a Musical or Best Actress in a Musical. This is the current record for the most individual Tony Award nominations for a performer along with a mantlepiece full of awards including the Presidential Medal of Honour and her much prized Tony for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.
Tributes have been pouring in for this great lady of the theatre so it makes sense to me to make the Theatrewise tribute a look at the lady herself, doing what she did almost better than anyone else.
The three links above are for an early television cabaret number from Porgy and Bess (I Got Plenty of Nuthin’), an unusual glimpse of Chita as a singer (How Lucky Can You Get) and two glorious numbers from Chicago (All That Jazz and Nowadays) with that other great musical theatre dance star, Gwen Verdon, also no longer with us, with whom Chita had an almost unworldly connection. They were the first cast of Chicago and, together, they were magic.
For dance lovers, if you watch carefully, you can see the slight differences of style between these two great show dancers, even when they’re dancing the same steps at the same time. Verdon is tighter, more closely adhering to the Fosse discipline of arms, hips, knees, Rivera is looser, more improvisatory, even within the confines of a strict unison choreography.
Sadly, when her great stage roles were filmed, it was movie stars who got her parts so there is very little video of a solo Chita Rivera. Nothing even from her unforgettable West Side Story performance. We can see Rita Moreno’s Anita but not Chita’s, who originated the role. No matter, we can love her with others nearly as well. And we’ve forgotten those movie stars who thought they were replacing her when all they did was to remind us of who we were missing.
We’ll never forget you, Chita, as long as we can enjoy these and remember what a remarkable “all-round entertainer” you were.
I consider myself to be fortunate to have seen her in Sweet Charity, Zorba and CanCan. She was a force of nature.