Chita Rivera, after having just turned 91, died on January 30 following a brief illness, but the legacy of her stage career is everlasting. She originated roles such as Anita in West Side Story, Velma Kelly in Chicago, Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie, Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Anna in The Rink, and Claire in The Visit. Her career included ten Tony Award nominations, two competitive Tony wins, an honorary Tony, and a Kennedy Center Honor. Unfortunately for mourning fans of Rivera’s, her career existed largely on the stage, meaning it is nigh impossible to revisit her greatest works in their full glory. Still, however, clips do exist, and there’s no shame in crying onto your computer as you watch Rivera’s work. Particularly known as a dancer, Rivera was able to be fluid and slinky or sharp and sexy, displaying unparalleled versatility. Below, our personal-favorite Rivera performances that are available online.
As Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Tony Awards
Perhaps the most valuable document of her immense skill and star quality comes in the Tony Awards performance of her song “Where You Are†from 1993’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, for which she won her second Tony Award. In it, Rivera, then 60, shows off her famous dancing abilities, moving effortlessly across the stage. In a white top hat and suit — seemingly not bound by the gravity that holds the rest of us down — she plays out the fantasy of an imprisoned gay man, Molina, as he tries to escape the horrors around him. Although only low-quality recordings of the performance survive today, each visible pixel represents the indomitable posture and remarkable skill of a true star.
Surprising Liza Minnelli As She Sings “Nowadaysâ€
If what you’re looking for is to truly, deeply sob, then check out this video of Liza Minnelli singing “Nowadays†with Rivera entering as a surprise at the end. Minnelli subsequently loses her mind in the sweetest and most beautiful of ways. The two had a long-standing partnership, beginning when Minnelli saw Rivera in Bye Bye Birdie as a child and decided, separately from her parents’ careers, to be an actress. “Chita was the first person I ever saw on Broadway, and, in Bye Bye Birdie, she’s the one who made me decide what I wanted to do,†Minnelli said in a 1984 Playbill interview. “I thought, ‘Oh, I’d like to do that.’ It was so immediate.†They briefly starred in Chicago together in 1975 while Gwen Verdon was on leave, then later co-starred as a mother-daughter duo in The Rink. “It’s interesting: I have a daughter, and Liza’s mother was so famous,†Rivera told Playbill at the time about The Rink. “For years when she was young — and, thank God, they’ve dropped this — she was known as Judy’s daughter. Now, she’s Liza — she’s finally Liza — and my daughter is one of Liza’s very closest friends, if not her best friend. It’s all kind of a family with us, smoldering with mother-daughter feelings.â€
Rivera Returning to “Shriners’ Ballet†in 1982
Rivera scored her first Tony nomination in 1961 for her work as Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie. Twenty-one years later, she reprised her famous “Shriners’ Ballet,†a dance number, in Showstoppers: The Best of Broadway, a TV special. Even two decades later, she has still got that special something that made Brooks Atkinson call her “a flammable singer and gyroscopic dancer†in his 1961 New York Times review of Bye Bye Birdie.
Choreography History Lesson in Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life
If you’re a theater-history nerd (and based on the fact that you’re reading this article, you are), there’s just nothing better than watching Rivera perform a history of her work with various choreographers in her autobiographical musical, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, from 2005. Her favorite was always Jerome Robbins, and nobody in history was a better interpreter. “I used to also say that if he told me to jump off a building and land on my left foot and take two steps forward, he’s just about the only person I’d do that for, because I’d know that he thought it out and that he knew it was possible,†Rivera told American Masters.
Rivera Sings and Dances in Her Early Prime on The Ed Sullivan Show
In 1962, Rivera was just one year out from her first Tony nomination and she was making the rounds on variety shows. Perhaps the best preserved example of this is her singing “This Could Be the Start of Something (Big)†on The Ed Sullivan Show. Because it was actually staged to be filmed, rather than being a taped version of a stage performance, this is one of the best available showcases of Rivera’s innate star power.
Rivera Performs at the Tonys One Last Time
Rivera was 82 when she came to Broadway for the last time in The Visit, the final musical written by her longtime collaborators Kander and Ebb. Without the ability to do her “gyroscopic†dance moves for the first time, what remained was her presence, her posture, and her command of the stage. Here, bathed in white, she performs a medley beginning with “Love and Love Alone†at the Tony Awards upon her tenth nomination.