Scotsman Obituaries: Chita Rivera, Broadway star who was the original Anita in West Side Story

“I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t moving or telling a story to you or singing a song,” she said then. “That’s the spirit of my life, and I’m really so lucky to be able to do what I love, even at this time in my life.”

In August 2009 Rivera was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honour the US can give a civilian. In 2013, she was the marshal at the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City.

Rivera rose from chorus girl to star, collaborating along the way with many of Broadway’s greatest talents, including Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Fosse, and John Kander and Fred Ebb.

She rebounded from a car accident in 1988 that crushed her right leg and became an indefatigable star on the road. She was on Broadway in a raucous production of The Mystery Of Edwin Drood in 2012 and The Visit in 2014, earning another best actress Tony nomination.

“She can’t rehearse except for full-out,” said playwright Terrence McNally in 2005. “She can’t perform except for full-out, no matter what the size of the house. She’s going to be there 101% for that audience.”

Rivera won Tonys for The Rink in 1984 and Kiss Of The Spider Woman in 1993. When accepting a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018, she said: “I wouldn’t trade my life in the theatre for anything, because theatre is life.”

She was nominated for the award seven other times, for Bye Bye Birdie, which opened in 1960; Chicago in 1975; Bring Back Birdie in 1981; Merlin in 1983; Jerry’s Girls in 1985; Nine in 2003; and 2005’s Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life.

“I don’t think we have enough original musicals,” she said in 2012. “I know I’m being old fashioned, but the theatre is the place where music, lyrics, words, scenery and stories come together. And I’ve been blessed enough to have done several shows when they really did. They take you places and they’re daring. That’s what we need.”

In the 1993 musical Kiss Of The Spider Woman, Rivera played the title role. The story, from a novel by Manuel Puig, had already been made into an Oscar-winning 1985 movie. In his review, drama critic Michael Kuchwara wrote that Rivera “is more than a musical theatre star. She’s a force of nature –which is exactly what is needed for the role of the Spider Woman. With her Louise Brooks haircut, brassy voice and lithe dancer’s body, Rivera dominates the stage whenever she appears.”

In 1975 she originated the role of Velma Kelly (to Gwen Verdon’s Roxie Hart) in the original Broadway production of Chicago. Rivera had a small role in the 2002 film version, while Catherine Zeta-Jones won the best supporting actress Oscar as Velma – just as Rita Moreno had picked up an Oscar for her portrayal of Anita in the big screen West Side Story.

The songwriters for Chicago, Kander and Ebb, also wrote Rivera’s first Tony-winning performance, for The Rink. In winning the Tony for best actress in a musical, Rivera topped the show’s main star, Liza Minnelli, who had also been nominated. The two played a mother and daughter who struggle to rebuild their relationship after a long estrangement.

Spider Woman had been her first Broadway show since 1986, when she suffered a broken leg in a road accident while she was appearing in Jerry’s Girls, a Broadway tribute to the songs of Jerry Herman. At the Tony awards a few weeks later, she flashed her cast and belted out “Put on a Happy Face” from the musical Bye, Bye, Birdie.

It took months of physical therapy to bring back her dancing skills. She said: “It never entered my mind that I wouldn’t dance again. Never. I can’t explain to you why. It’s hard work getting back but that’s what I’m doing. My spirit is still there.”

Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero was born in 1933 in Washington, DC. Her Puerto Rican father, Pedro del Rivero, a musician who played in the United States Navy Band, died when she was seven. Her mother was of Scottish and Italian descent. She took dance classes and then entered the prestigious School of American Ballet in New York. Her first theatre job, at 17, was in the touring company of Call Me Madam. That led to chorus stints in such shows as Guys and Dolls and Can-Can.

In her 2023 book, Chita: A Memoir, another woman steals scene after scene: her self-proclaimed alter ego, Dolores. Unapologetic and fiery, Dolores was the unfiltered version of Chita and served as motivation in times of self-doubt. In one chapter, Rivera writes that she does not read reviews “or Dolores just might invest in a dozen voodoo dolls”.

“I consist of – and I think we all do – I consist of two people: Dolores and Conchita,” Rivera said in an interviewthat year. “Conchita, she’s the one that has been taking all the glory, you know. She’s been doing all the shows, but Dolores is the one that’s pushed her into it. And she’s been keeping me on track, so I listen to Dolores. I listen to her. She’s growing in my head now as we speak.”

Among other early appearances on the New York stage were roles in The Shoestring Revue, 1955; a 1955 musical version of Seventh Heaven starring Ricardo Montalban; and Mr Wonderful, a 1956 show starring Sammy Davis Jr.

“I can’t believe that I’ve been given the gift to look back and relive my life,” she said shortly before The Dancer’s Life opened on Broadway in late 2005. “It’s about how anybody can do it — if you really believe it, you have the good fortune, you do all the right things and you really work hard.”

Rivera married fellow West Side Story performer Tony Mordente in 1957. The marriage ended in divorce. Their daughter, Lisa Mordente, also became a performer who occasionally appeared on Broadway, garnering a Tony nomination in 1982 for Marlowe.

Obituaries

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