Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life

"I had not considered doing this before," says Chita Rivera on the subject of turning her life into a stage spectacular along the lines of Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life. Thankfully, the Broadway legend isn't finding the role of "Chita Rivera" all that different from any of her other famous parts like, say, Anita West Side Story, Rose Grant Bye Bye Birdie or Velma Kelly Chicago: "It's about the same challenge, as I have specific dialogue and a written script. Fortunately, in my case, written by Terrence McNally."

The Tony-winning playwright who wrote another of Chita's legendary parts—the dual roles of Spider Woman and Aurora in 1993's Kiss of the Spider Woman—knew for certain what he didn't want the evening to be. "Chita just doing her greatest hits would be boring," he offers. "We had to find a approach to make it relevant to an audience." With the help of a handful of recordings of interviews a journalist had conducted with Rivera and a week-long brainstorm/work session with the star, director Graciela Daniele and musical director Mark Hummel, McNally found his hook. "When she tells her story, she's really speaking for everybody that works in the theater—and the craft, technique and stamina they all have. The story of Chita's career is the story of the golden age of the American musical."

So audiences at Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life will hear how the former Conchita Figueroa del Rivero of Washington, D.C. got to work with the likes of Leonard Bernstein, Fred Ebb, Bob Fosse, John Kander, Liza Minnelli, Hal Prince, Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim and Gwen Verdon. But don't, McNally stresses, come to the show with a penchant for gossip. "Anyone coming looking for dirt will be sorely disappointed—that is, unless the dirt you're looking for is what it was like putting together the Dance at the Gym from West Side Story and what it was like working with Verdon and Fosse on Chicago." Count us in.

CHITA RIVERA: THE DANCER'S LIFE WHERE: Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street WHEN: Starts November 23, opens December 11