CHITA RIVERA DANCES INTO CLEVELAND

Written by four-time Tony Award-winner Terrence McNally, this high-energy musical and biographical love letter is directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele.  The show offers its audiences a rare look into that moment when great musical numbers in the theater were born, as related and performed by the woman for whom they were created.  CHITA RIVERA: THE DANCER’S LIFE is a magical tour through landmark creations in the American theater that were helmed by some of the greatest talents in its history, including Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Fosse, Gower Champion and Michael Kidd and features new songs by the Tony Award-winning team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime).  Along the way, Rivera and company will celebrate some of her most stunning and legendary Broadway performances – from West Side Story to Chicago to Kiss of the Spider Woman.

“Chita Rivera is our strongest link to the Golden Age of the American Musical.  She worked with all the great choreographers and composers and was present at the creation of such seminal masterpieces as “The Dance at the Gym” from West Side Story when the talent in the room was a veritable Mount Rushmore of the American theater: Bernstein, Robbins, Laurents and Prince,” said Terrence McNally.  “I hope our show reminds audiences of what that level of theater was like and what it still can be if the talent, the technique and the passion are there.  CHITA RIVERA: THE DANCER’S LIFE looks back in order to look forward.”

As an aspiring 17-year-old ballerina, Rivera decided to accompany a friend to an audition for the chorus of Call Me Madam without any serious intention of pursuing a part in the show.  Jerome Robbins took one look, cast her as a principal dancer, and the rest is theater history.  Throughout her 50-year career, Chita has been referred to by critics as no less than “a force of nature” and a “true Broadway star.”
 
Rivera has been a consistent and dynamic presence on Broadway for over half a century.  Prior to her Broadway run in THE DANCER’S LIFE, she most recently starred in the New York-bound Kander and Ebb musical The Visit at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.  She is a two-time Tony Award winner for The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman, and also received nods for her performances in Nine (her most recent Broadway appearance), Jerry’s Girls, Merlin, Bring Back Birdie, the original production of Chicago and Bye Bye, Birdie. Rivera originated the role of Anita in West Side Story, and has also been seen on Broadway in Can-Can, Mr. Wonderful, Shinbone Alley and Bajour, as well as in touring productions of Pippin and Sweet Charity.

CHITA RIVERA: THE DANCER’S LIFE is actually the wonderful result of a wonderful honor.  When she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor in 2002—the first Hispanic woman to win the country’s highest accolade for contribution to the arts—Rivera had an epiphany.

“People had told me that I should write my story since I’m sort of the last of a breed, but I didn’t think I’d enjoy it—I’m a very private person,” she says.  “But sitting in the Kennedy Center balcony with James Earl Jones, Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Simon, and watching this amazing performance that (director/choreographer) Rob Marshall put together for me with 35 stallion dancers, I realized that I really represent the dancer, and that gave me the proper inspiration to talk about myself.”

Thus, the seed of CHITA RIVERA: THE DANCER’S LIFE began to grow.  And we are so glad!

Synopsis and Musical Numbers

The evening is divided into thematic sections; Chita talks to the audience about various periods and aspects of her life.

 PROLOGUE – “Perfidia”  
Chita, as a child, recalls her father, a professional musician, playing “Perfidia” for her on the saxophone.  Chita lost her father when she was seven years old.  In this scene, he recedes into the wings and young Chita picks up the rhythm in this music in the form of dance.

THE WHITE HOUSE – “Secret o’ Life”  
Chita is at the White House for the Kennedy Center Honors.  In awe of her surroundings and this great honor, she begins to reminisce about her life and the path that has brought her to this point. She determines that “The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.”

MI FAMILIA LOCA – “Dancing on the Kitchen Table”
The company joins in an original song by Ahrens and Flaherty, depicting life at the Del Rivero family table in Washington, DC, when Chita was a young child. The children express varying degrees of delight and disapproval as young Chita is “dancing on the table.”  When Chita dances so hard that the table breaks, her parents determine that something must be done.  She is sent to dance class.

BALLET CLASS –
In this scene, with dancers at the barre, Chita recalls that she took ballet class three times a week, learning discipline under a dictatorial but inspiring instructor and mentor. She goes on to explain how she traveled from ballet to the theater, and when she was hired for a role in Call Me Madam, it was the end of her career in classical ballet.

THE GYPSY LIFE – “Something to Dance About” (Call Me Madam); “I’m Available” (Mr. Wonderful); “Camille, Colette, Fifi” (Seventh Heaven); “Garbage” (The Shoestring Revue); “Can-Can” (Can-Can); “Mr. Wonderful” (Mr. Wonderful)

As a young chorus member, or “gypsy,” Chita tells how she dreamed of getting a “crossover,” or a featured bit of dancing or business to do while the scenery is changing. She continues reminiscing about other lessons learned; mistakes made and experiences had: yearning for fame, her first show on Broadway, working with a young Beatrice Arthur and Sammy Davis Jr., performing in the chorus of Can-Can and living in New York City.
  

WEST SIDE STORY - “A Boy Like That,” “America,” “Dance at the Gym,” “Somewhere”

Chita recreates the audition that landed her the job and reflects on the musical that was the turning point in her career.  

CO-STARS “Put on a Happy Face” (Bye Bye Birdie);  “Rosie” (Bye Bye Birdie);  “Big Spender” (Sweet Charity);  “Ah Ma” (The Rink); “Nowadays” (Chicago) 
 
Chita sings each song with different members of her ensemble who represent significant co-stars from those shows. Each of Chita’s co-stars is represented in silhouette during this section.  It all leads up to an emotionally powerful tribute to Gwen Verdon. In this final section of Act One, Chita sings and dances “Nowadays” from Chicago, beside an empty spotlight representing the pointedly absent Verdon, to whom Chita turns when she sings “but nothing stays.”

THE AUDITION   
This scene depicts a recreation of a dance audition in front of a mirror.  Chita is rejected because she is “not Latin enough.”  To prove she IS Latin enough, Chita launches into a series of dynamic tangos opposite…

THE MEN  Tangos - “Adios Ninino,” “Detresse,” “Calambre,” and “More Than You Know”

Chita recalls some of her great romances.

CHOREOGRAPAHERS  
The other men in Chita’s life: choreographers.  She pays tribute to the individual talents of Jack Cole, Peter Gennaro, Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins, as she and the ensemble demonstrate their styles.  At the conclusion, Chita drinks a toast to the great choreographers and to the new ones coming up.  She also reveals some of her setbacks, but does not dwell on them:  she knows she’s been very lucky!

THE SHOWS  “A Woman the World Has Never Seen” (original song by Ahrens and Flaherty);   “Class” (Chicago);  “Chief Cook and Bottle Washer” (The Rink);  “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (Kiss of the Spider Woman);   “Where You Are” (Kiss of the Spider Woman)

An original song by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty serves as a compass to guide Chita through a tour de force of reminiscences of her three great Kander & Ebb shows.

THE WHITE HOUSE - “All That Jazz” (Chicago)

Chita pulls it all to conclusion with her signature number.  Stating that after all that Broadway has given her, it is time to give back; she performs “All That Jazz” as the “young Chita” shadows her.