The AP
"Chita Rivera is the ultimate Broadway gypsy.
That may sound like a strange description for a woman who is a more than 50-year veteran of musical theater. Yet the performer, whose affecting theatrical memoir "Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life" opened Sunday at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, radiates a youthful joy when she talks about her work on stage, particularly as a member of the ensemble.
As Rivera explains early on in the show: "When you're working in the chorus of a Broadway musical, you're known as a gypsy. It's a good word, gypsy. It reflects a lifetime of being on the road but it also has glamour, a mystery, even a little sense of danger."
That enthusiasm, coupled with unflagging energy in her commitment to song and dance, makes Rivera one of the last of a vanishing breed - a true theater star. So playwright Terrence McNally had the most special of ingredients to work with when he was hired to shape Rivera's show-biz saga into a two-hour theatrical parade.
The show, directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele, is a straightforward affair, with its leading lady backed by nine superb dancers plus one young girl who plays the star as a child.
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"The Dancer's Life" is not as confessional as Elaine Stritch's one-woman show, but then Rivera adopts a sunnier attitude toward life and what has happened during her lengthy career. "Looking back doesn't have to be painful," she tells the audience. Judging from what's on stage at the Schoenfeld, it can be most entertaining as well.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/13385733.htm
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
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"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
