NEW YORK.- Chita Rivera, the dynamic dancer, singer and actress who received 10 nominations and two Tony Awards, with a long career in Broadway who opened a breakthrough for Latin artists, died on Tuesday. He was 91 years old.
Rivera’s death was announced by his daughter, Lisa Mordente, who said he died in NY after a brief illness.
Rivera first became known in 1957 as Anita in the original production of West Side Story (Love without barriers) and was still dancing on Broadway with her characteristic energy half a century later in The Visit of 2015.
“I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t moving or telling a story or singing a song,” he told The Associated Press at the time. “That’s the spirit of my life, and I’m very fortunate to be able to do what I love, even at this point in my life.”
In August 2009, Rivera was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the United States can bestow on a civilian. Rivera placed his hand over her heart and shook his head in amazement as President Barack Obama presented him with the medal.
Actress Impact
Rivera rose from chorus girl to star, collaborating along the way with Broadway’s greatest talents, including Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Fosse, Gower Champion, Michael Kidd, Harold Prince, Jack Cole, Peter Gennaro, and John Kander and Fred Ebb.
He recovered from a serious car accident in 1988 that crushed his right leg and became a tireless touring star. He was on Broadway in a raucous production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood in 2012 and in the chilling The Visit in 2014, earning another Tony nomination for best actress.
“She can’t rehearse except at full throttle,” playwright Terrence McNally said in 2005. “She can’t act unless she’s at full capacity, no matter the size of the theater. She’s going to be there 101% for that audience.” .
He won Tony Awards for The Rink in 1984 and Kiss of the Spider Woman (The kiss of the spider woman) in 1993. Upon receiving a Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 2018, he said: “I wouldn’t trade my life in the theater for anything, because theater is life.”
She was nominated for the Tony seven other times, for Bye Bye Birdiewhich premiered in 1960; Chicago, 1975; Bring Back Birdie1981; Merlin1983; Jerry’s Girls1985; Nine, 2003; y Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life2005.
“I don’t think we have enough original musicals,” she told The Associated Press in 2012. “I know I’m being old-fashioned, but theater is where music, lyrics, words, scenery and stories come together. And “I’ve been lucky enough to have done several shows where that really happened. They take you to other places and they’re bold. That’s what we need.”
Their albums include 16 songs taken from recordings of their works and were released as part of the series Legends of Broadway from Sony and two solo albums: And Now I Sing for a small record label in the 1960s and “And Now I Swing” in 2009 for Yellow Sound Label.
In the 1993 musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, Rivera played the title role, a glamorous movie star at the center of the fantastical life of an inmate in a South American prison. The story, based on a novel by Manuel Puig, had already been adapted for an Oscar-winning film in 1985.
Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero was born on January 23, 1933 in Washington, DC. Her Puerto Rican father, Pedro del Rivero, was a musician who played in the United States Navy Band; he died when she was 7 years old. Her mother was of Scottish and Italian descent.
In 2013, Rivera was marshal of the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York.
FUENTE: AP
