Chita rivera chicago: Look Back at Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon in Chicago on Broadway
At age 84, she can still sing about the livin’ yet to do – Chicago Tribune
Chita Rivera sang “A Boy Like That” from “West Side Story” from the stage of the Steppenwolf Theatre on Monday night. She was, after all, the original Anita. She first performed the song for Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim in 1957, when she was 24 years old. She played opposite Carol Lawrence of Melrose Park.
“Stick to your own k-i-i-n-n-d,” Rivera, now 84, roared on Monday as her atypically muted Gotham consigliere, Seth Rudetsky, rattled the keys, staring intensely at his music — Rivera being at once charming and profoundly intimidating. The sound on last of those five words, which Rivera always has treated like a multi-syllable explosion, or a slow rocket launch with a moral imperative, still came in a thrilling rush. Her vibrato has, or course, widened with age, but that just means there now are more colors for her to explore.
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“I was fascinated with death,” Rivera observed at one point, chatting merrily with Rudetsky, who specializes in these intimate sing-a-little-talk-a-little shows with Broadway stars.
Actually, that’s evident in her work: Aside from Anita, surely Rivera’s two greatest roles are the Spider Woman — she who delivers a kiss sealed by John Kander and the late Fred Ebb — and, as we Chicago audiences were the first to experience in 2001, Claire Zachanassian in Kander and Ebb’s “The Visit.” Both of these characters are bad news for anyone who keep on trucking like Ms. Chita.
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“Now that I am closer to it,” Rivera added, dryly, sitting on the set of a Tracy Letts play and staring death down with a grin, “I don’t find it quite so fascinating.”
Thus the opener of a show that lasted almost two hours, not that anybody wanted it ever to end, was “A Lot of Livin’ to Do” from “Bye Bye Birdie” (Rivera was the original Rose in 1960). You could say that of very many 84-year-olds. It’s a smaller subset, though, with a lot of working to do. But Rivera is a member.
She can still move her body like few of her fellow humans. Rivera’s shrewd self-deprecation — “there are other things in the way now,” she says, before twisting her body into a pretzel to demonstrate something from the original production of “Chicago,” wherein she was the first Velma Kelly — is hardly necessary.
But it’s part of her old-school morality.
She had more Broadway success than any Latina performer of her generation, and Rivera allows that she did not shy away from the opportunities as they arose, even when they came at the expense of others. But in recounting how she rose out of the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet in Washington D.C. by capturing the eye of “Mr. Balanchine,” she referenced only the quality of her training. To Rivera, a star is someone who does the work, eight shows a week and who never disappoints her audience.
She might have occasionally needed Rudetsky’s help to recount some of the great old stories about Judy Garland or Gwen Verdon — it’s hard to remember whether “Can-Can” came before becoming chief cook and bottle washer in “The Rink” and, once the decades pile up, the 1950s easily can meld into the 1960s. But when it came to the performances of her major songs on Monday night, Rivera never blew a single syllable of a single lyric. She just lit up every time.
Her version of “Love and Love Alone” from “The Visit,” one of Kander and Ebb’s greatest and least appreciated songs, was a stunner.
“So beware young love, lost in a kiss,” Rivera sang, her body erect, her truth-telling still uncompromising and definitive. “There’s a truth young love, simple as this: Every fond hello, ends in goodbye. What seems certain to live, will die.”
Well, sure. No question. Can’t change that. But may it be long delayed for us all. ”Gotta move,” Rivera sang, all part of her Monday-night primer for aging well, but never in place. “Time’s a-wastin.’”
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Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
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Chita Rivera: Credits, Bio, News & More
The Visit
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 2015
Claire Zachanassian
The Visit
[Williamstown, MA (Regional)]
Williamstown Theatre Festival Production, 2014
Claire
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
[Broadway]
Roundabout Theatre Company Production, 2012
Princess Puffer
The Visit
[Arlington, VA (Regional)]
Kander & Ebb Celebration Production, 2008
Claire Zachanassian
The Visit
[Arlington, VA (Regional)]
Signature Theatre Production, 2007
Claire Zachanassian
Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 2005
Chita Rivera
The Visit
[Off-Broadway]
Original Off-Broadway Production [Cancelled], 2004
Claire Zachanassian
Nine
[Broadway]
Roundabout Revival, 2003
Liliane La Fleur
The Visit
[Chicago (Regional)]
World Premiere, 2001
Claire Zachanassian
Anything Goes
[Milburn, NJ (Regional)]
Paper Mill Production, 2000
Reno Sweeney
Reno Sweeney
Dear World
[New York]
Workshop, 1998
Countess Aurelia
Chicago
[US Tour]
2nd National Tour, 1997
Roxie Hart [Replacement]
Chicago
[West End]
London Revival, 1997
Roxie Hart [Replacement]
Angela Lansbury – A Celebration
[Broadway]
Angela Lansbury Tribute Benefit, 1996
Performer
Kiss of the Spider Woman
[Broadway]
Broadway Production, 1993
Spider Woman/Aurora
Spider Woman / Aurora
Kiss of the Spider Woman
[West End]
London Production, 1992
Spider Woman/Aurora
Kiss of the Spider Woman
[Toronto]
Toronto Production, 1992
Performer
Jerry’s Girls
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1985
Performer
The Rink
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1984
Anna
Merlin
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1983
The Queen
Bring Back Birdie
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1981
Rose
V.
I.P. Night on Broadway
[Broadway]
1979
Performer
Chicago
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1975
Velma Kelly
Sondheim: A Musical Tribute
[Broadway]
Concert [Broadway], 1973
Performer
Meredith Willson’s 1491
[Broadway]
Closed on the road, 1969
Performer
Bajour
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1964
Anyanka
Zenda
[Broadway]
Closed on the road, 1963
Athena Constantine
Bye Bye Birdie
[West End]
London Production, 1961
Rose Grant
Bye Bye Birdie
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1960
Rose Grant
Rose Alvarez
West Side Story
[West End]
London Production, 1958
Anita
West Side Story
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1957
Anita
Shinbone Alley
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1957
mehitabel (Standby)
Mr.
Wonderful
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1956
Rita Romano
Rita Romano
Seventh Heaven
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1955
Fifi
Fifi
Can-Can
[Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1953
Dancer [Replacement]
Chita Rivera – Movies and TV series
Tick tock… BOOM! tick, tick…BOOM! 2021, biographical, drama, musical
8film.ru
7.3
-viewers
7.6IMDb
last of the showmen Last of the Showmen 2014, musical
-film.ru
-builders
-IMDB
Ashley Ashley 2013, Drama
-film.ru
-Involves
5.6IMDB
Carol Channing: more life Carol Channing: Larger Life , Biographic, Biographic , comedy, documentary, music
-film.ru
7.4imdb
60th annual Tony Award Ceremony The 60th Annual Tony Awards 2006
-Film.
ru
6 ,4viewers
5.4IMDb
Kalamazoo? Kalamazoo? 2006, Comedy
-film.ru
-builders
4.9IMDB
lost treasures of Broadway III: Best Tony Award Broadway Treasures III: The Best of the Tony Awards 2005,
9000 -Film. en
-viewers
7.7IMDb
59th Annual Tony Awards The 59th Annual Tony Awards 2005, music
-film.ru
-generators
8.1imdb
58th annual presentation ceremony of Tony The 58TH Annual Tony Awards 2004, music
-film.ru
7,0002 7,0002 7,0002 7.1imdb
Kennedy Center: The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts 2003, musical, family
-film.ru
-audience
6.5IMDb
57th Annual Tony Awards The 57th Annual Tony Awards 2003, Music
-film.ru
6.9IMDB
Chicago Chicago 2002, Comedy, Musical, Triller
7film.
ru
7.8 -distinction 7,2imdb
Review
Dasha -Transfigurator (series) Dora The Explorer 2000, cartoons, comedy, musical, adventure, family, fantasy
-film.ru
6.5 9000
4,2IMDB
53rd Annual Tony Awards The 53rd Annual Tony Awards 1999, Music
-film.ru
8.3IMDB
Will and Grace Will & Grace 1998, Comedy
-Film.ru
7.3.3 for all children (TV series) Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child 1995, cartoons, detective, adventure, family, thriller, horror, fantasy Tony The 42nd Annual Tony Awards 1988, Family
-film.ru
7.5IMDB
Madame Maiflaueer Mayflower Madam 1987, Drama
-DISTRICS AC nine0002 5.3IMDB
41st annual award ceremony “Tony” (T The 41st Annual Tony Awards 1987, Family
-film.ru
-6,000
8IMDB
Biography BIOGRAPHY 1987, biographical, documentary
-film.
ru
-viewers
7.7IMDb
I want to dance with him He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin’ 1983, documentary, family
900.ru2 viewers
6.3IMDB
Pippin: his life and time Pipin: HIS Life and Times 1981, Historical, Musical, Melodrama, War
-film.ru
-Involts
7.3IMDB
Diamond Gollywood Hollywood Hollywood Hollywood Hollywood Hollywood’s Diamond Jubilee 1978, historical, music
-film.ru
6.9viewers
9.1IMDb
Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 1978 Adventure Comedy Fantasy Musical
–Film.ru
-th
4,2IMDB
Once upon a Grimm Brothers Once Upon a Brothers Grimm 1977, Family, Fantasy, musical
-film.ru
–
7.5IMDB
Hollywood Greats (TV series) Hollywood Greats 1977, documentary, historical nine0004 1976, Family
-film.
ru
-builders
6.7IMDB
Great performances (TV series) Great Performances 1971, Drama, Music, Musical
-film.ru
-9000 -9000 9000 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 ,1IMDb
Great Performances (TV series) Great Performances 1971, biographical, drama, music, musical
-film.ru
-viewers
7.7IMDb
7.7IMDb
New series (Van Duke) The0 Dick Van Dyke Show 1971, comedy
-film.ru
6.6IMDB
Cute Charity Sweet Charity 1969, Music
-film.ru
–
6.9IMDB
This is life (this is life (this Series) That’s Life 1968, Comedy, musical
-film.ru
-generators
8.3IMDB
show Jonathan Winter (TV series) The Jonathan Winters Show 1967, Comedy 9000-000 -Film.ru
-spectators
8.1IMDb
The Judy Garland Show (TV series) The Judy Garland Show 1963, comedy, music Show 1958, Comedy, Family
-film.
ru
-6,0005
6.9IMDB
Captain Kenguru (series) Captain Kangaroo 1955, Family
-Film.ru
6.9 Drawers 9000 9000 8IMDB
Caesar’s Hour (TV series) 9 1954, comedy
The page provides lyrics and translation from English into Russian of the song “All That Jazz” from the albums “Broadway. Los Grandes Musicales”, “Chicago: A Musical Vaudeville” and “Broadway: The American Musical” by Chita Rivera. nine0005
Lyrics
Come on babe, why don’t we paint the town?
And all that jazz
I’m gonna rouge my knees and roll my stockings down
And all that jazz
Start the car, I know a whoopee spot
Where the gin is cold, but the piano’s hot
It’s just a noisy hall where there’s a nightly brawl
And all… that… jazz
Skidoo
And all that jazz
Hotcha…Whoopee
And all that jazz
Slick your hair, and wear your buckle shoes
And all that jazz
I hear that Father Dipp is gonna blow the blues
And all that jazz
Hold on hun, we’re gonna bunny hug
I bought some aspirin, down at United Drug
In case you shake apart, and want a brand new start
To do… that… jazz
Find a flask, we’re playing fast and loose
And all that jazz
Right up here is where I store the juice
And all that jazz
Come on babe, we’re gonna brush the sky
I betcha lucky Lindy
Never flew so high
Cause in the stratosphere
How could he land an ear
To all… that… jazz?
Oh, you’re gonna see your sheba shimmy shake
And all that jazz
Oh, she’s gonna shimmy till her garters break
And all that jazz
Show her where to park her girl
Oh, her mother’s blood’ll curdle*
Did she hear, her baby’s queer*
For all… that… jazz!
No, I’m no one’s wife
But, oh I love my life
And all… that… jazz!
That jazz!
nine0005
Lyrics
Come on baby, why don’t we paint the town?
And all that jazz.
..
I’ll paint my knees and lower my stockings
And all that jazz.
Start the car, I know the place
Where the Jin is cold but the piano is hot
It’s just a noisy hall where the night fight
And all that… this… jazz.
Skidoo
And all that jazz.
Hotch… Whoopi!
And all that jazz…
Cut your hair and wear buckle shoes
And all that jazz.
I heard Father Dipp is going to ruin the blues
And all that jazz.
Hold on to the khan, we’ll hug the hare,
I bought some aspirin at United Drag
, in case you get separated and want to start a new one
Life… is… jazz.
Find a flask, we play fast and loose
And all that jazz
Right here where I keep my juice
And all that jazz.
Come on baby, we’ll clean up the sky.
I bet you lucky Lindy
Never flew so high
Because in the stratosphere
How could he listen
To all… this… jazz?
Oh you’ll see your sheba shimmy shake
And all that jazz.
Oh, she’ll shimmer until her garters break
And all that jazz.
Show her where to park
Oh, her mother’s blood will clot.
Did she hear that her baby is weird*
For all.