Theater Lovers KNOW – Chita Did It First!

You may’ve heard the name in passing over the years .

Such a catchy name, but couldn’t quite place her.

Old-time movie star? Puerto Rican musical import? Variety show hostess?

On January 30th, we lost one of Broadway’s best, at the age of 91.

Never fear, my buried musical theater maniac mindset has been reignited.

Allow me to tell you about Miss Chita Rivera.

West Side Story

Even if you didn’t know her, I’m sure your life has been touched by the art that she helped create, the art she in fact originated.

Ever see the movie West Side Story? You know, where Rita Moreno wears the purple dress and dances on a rooftop to the pulsating rhythms of the song America?

Great number.

Chita did it first!

Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents and choreographer Jerome Robbins — musical theater heavyweights and not exactly easy men to please — selected her to originate the role of Anita in their masterpiece, West Side Story, which opened all the way back in 1957.

She must’ve made quite an impression.

It’s pretty darn rare for leading roles to be entrusted to dancers alone. Anita also sings but most especially must also act upon learning of the death of her lover, Bernardo. Both Rita Moreno and Ariana DeBose won Oscars for the meaty role of Anita, of course, for they were handed excellent, well-worked material.

But it was Chita Rivera in that rehearsal hall in the late ‘50’s, working out the kinks, learning the complicated Bernstein songs like A Boy Like That, and helping the collaborators craft this now-mainstay of American musical theater for its original debut.

CHICAGO

Most people with even a passing knowledge of musical theater recognize the opening vamp to the song All That Jazz, sung with gusto by Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Oscar-winning movie Chicago. The musical’s revival is still playing on Broadway to this day, and All That Jazz opens the show, lighting up the night with the promise of fun.

Chita did it first!

Chita Rivera was selected by none other than Bob Fosse to originate the role of Velma Kelly in the original Broadway production of Chicago in 1975.

When I first learned of Chicago in the early 1990’s, it was literally still a forgotten musical way ahead of its time. There’d been no revival yet and the film was still a decade away. But when I heard the passion and bite behind Chita’s rendition of All That Jazz on the CD for the first time, I was mesmerized.

Talk about putting a stamp on something!

Again, a dancer first who can also act and sing — a triple threat, name-up-in-lights Broadway star, entrusted with the daunting task of opening new material to a potentially vicious New York press.

Bye Bye Birdie

A favorite musical for high school drama clubs, you may have smiled (or suffered) your way through a production or two of Bye Bye Birdie in your day, silently wondering to yourself —

Hmm, why is the lead female character going into a solo dance number again here in Act Two? Is this really needed? Is this advancing the story?

That’s what happens when the role was tailor-made for a very specific star who can mesmerize an audience through dance.

Chita did it first!

To me, this is the one most theater people overlook — the fact that an enormously successful 1960 Broadway musical had Dick Van Dyke acting opposite a Latina leading lady love interest as Rosie.

And when you’ve got Chita in a lead, you need to incorporate dance into the character’s numbers, craft the entire character around her. The Spanish spitfire stereotypes and innuendos are all through the show, and to this day the opening song An English Teacher is a difficult ask of any actress — it was written for Chita’s deep, husky voice specifically, written for their star. Talk about some low bass notes!

The movie role somehow went to a heavily-made-up Janet Leigh (cough).

But oh well, at that point the film had become mainly an Ann-Margret vehicle so the character of Rosie was considered second-fiddle to the teen focus anyway.

As a late ‘80’s developing musical theater nerd studying Original Cast Recordings, I knew she was worthy of my praise. I’d never seen her perform, I’d never met her, yet I adored her.

As any young theater kid does, I caught The Tony Awards and saw a 60-something Chita tear up the stage in a dance number for the original Broadway musical, Kiss Of The Spider Woman.

Vanessa Williams eventually took over the role, but, say it with me —

Chita did it first.

She won her second Tony for Spider Woman (her first was stunningly not until The Rink opposite Liza Minnelli in 1984). And though I had the music memorized, as a working actor I never had the funds to see the Spider Woman tour when it arrived in Cleveland, Ohio.

But I was certainly aware of the show, because the musical director of one of my musicals proclaimed —

“I’m going downtown to see Chita, because I want to be inspired, seeing someone in their 60s like me, dancing like that, headlining a show.”

But that’s the thing, with Chita it was about longevity. She was a poster child for the aging dancer, carrying shows into her seventh decade. Despite a horrible car accident that broke a leg in 12 places — a nightmare injury for any dancer — she was back winning Tonys in a show full of dance.

Nine

But yours truly didn’t lay eyes on Chita, in person, until 2003, when I scored a ticket to the revival of Nine staring Antonio Banderas. During the spine-tingling Follies Bergere number I had to pinch myself. I was witnessing the original Anita from 1957, the original Rosie from 1960, the original Velma from 1975 — and I gasped and applauded with the entire audience as 70-year-old Chita masterfully threw a leg up onto Antonio’s shoulder during a sexy tango number.

A consummate professional — one of the old school who didn’t skip matinees, who did all eight shows a week, and was never out of the show. Sure, there were flops and disappointments. Shows that didn’t quite go anywhere. The gypsy years as an unknown dancer. And then the legendary-status roles in The Visit and in the revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood in the 2000s.

The woman just kept working.

But apart from a great role in the movie Sweet Charity, where director Bob Fosse captured her dance prowess in the Shirley MacLaine-led film, Chita remained known and worshiped mainly by Broadway devotees alone.

It was the medium that had blessed her the most, and she rewarded us all by coming back to it again and again.

In December 2022, eleven months ago, I learned that Chita was doing a one-woman cabaret show in Orange County just south of LA. I knew in my heart of hearts this may be my last chance to see her perform, certainly in person. She was a few weeks away from turning 90.

And as the piano player brought forth the familiar vamp of All That Jazz, it was impossible not to be moved. When she performed Nowadays, there were chills – chills!

I’m so mad at myself for not at least trying to step backstage after, to thank her for her years, her contributions to a favorite art form. It’s not like the older crowd in the audience was rushing the stage door. Alas.

But at least I got to spend those 90 minutes with her storytelling, with her unique, rich, guttural voice cutting across the footlights. She’d been there, in those rehearsal rooms, crafting material with egomaniacs like Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Leonard Bernstein. She worked for heavyweights like Jerry Herman, Kander & Ebb, Gower Champion and lived to tell the tale, came out unscathed with professional reputation intact.

It’s a great lesson in aging. In persisting. And remaining relevant. Chita worked with Ethel Merman in the early 50’s and went on to collaborate with Rob Marshall and the current crop of Broadway stars like Stephanie J. Block.

I’ve always had a soft spot for those non-movie stars who headlined on Broadway and put in the work. Bless you Chita, I somehow thought you’d live forever. It somehow seemed that you might.

I’ll end with this.

My partner Eddie is a former professional dancer and had a brief stint on Broadway way before meeting me. You can imagine the tingles of excitement that went through me the day I learned that even he had collaborated with and even danced with Chita Rivera — sharing the stage with her in the musical Merlin.

And again, the same story — friendly, respectful woman, highly professional and a legend and star with deep respect for dancers.

And my man got to dance with her!?!

That’s one degree away, folks! One degree of Kevin Bacon away from the one, the only, Miss Chita Rivera.

Rest, dear lady, and my hat is off to you.