Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

#1

Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 2:24pm

What is your favorite Chita Rivera cast recording?

I adore all of her work on disc, but I think my favorite is The Rink.

What is yours?

#2

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 2:28pm

Bring Back Birdie...but I was listening to The Rink this morning on the train and I was really loving it. "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" is fabulous!

#3

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 2:36pm

"Chief Cook..." is amazing. One of her best performances.

I have been giving Bring Back Birdie more play. Rivera is in great form, even if the material is beneath her.

#4

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 2:43pm

I'm so glad you're giving Bring Back Birdie another chance Bobby. "I Like What I Do," "A Man Worth Fightin' For," and "Well I'm Not" are fantastic songs.

#5

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 2:45pm

Yeah, I've been trying to give Bring Back Birdie and Prettybelle second chances.

#6

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 2:59pm

I love hearing Chita singing 'All that Jazz' on the OBC recording of Chicago. The best version I've ever heard. So I say that.

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"The cynicism you refer to, I acquired the day I discovered I was different from little boys!~All About Eve

#7

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 3:09pm

Another vote for The Rink. And, to echo everyone else, I also think "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" is a great song.

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"How do you like THAT 'misanthropic panache,' Mr. Goldstone?" - PalJoey

#8

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 3:12pm

can't wait to hear her sing it live on November 23rd

#9

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 3:15pm

I definitely have to say The Rink, I love that score and she really shines on it.

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"Judy Garland, Jimmy Dean, You tragedy Queen" ~ Taboo

"Watching a frat boy realize just what he put his d!ck in...ex's getting std's...schadenfruede" ~ Ave Q

"when dangers near, exploit their fear" ~ Reefer Madness the Musical

#10

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 3:16pm

The Rink

#11

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 3:18pm

Oh, West Side Story easily. Bernstein is my favorite composer, and Chita does a great job w/ "America" and particularly "A Boy Like That." And Larry Kert is in top form, his "Maria" gives me chills. I can't listen to the soundtrack, I adore the OBCR.

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"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli

#12

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 3:20pm

Kiss of the Spider Woman

#13

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 3:22pm

Overall my favorite would have to be the Rink. But her best tracks are:



Spanish Rose (Birdie)
Where you are (Spiderwoman)
and of course America from West Side.
Don't oh Ma Me (the rink)
Chief Cook and Bottle Washer) (rink)
I Cant do it alone (All that Jazz)

#14

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 3:34pm

can't wait to hear her sing it live on November 23rd

Boo! Just kidding. I wish I could see her live, but I don't think it's gonna happen.

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"How do you like THAT 'misanthropic panache,' Mr. Goldstone?" - PalJoey

#15

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 4:59pm

I Can't Do it Alone is from Chicago, not All That Jazz.

#16

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 5:08pm

I don't understand how you can appreciate BRING BACK BIRDIE - I've tried listening to it, and it's just intolerable!

My favorite Chita recordings are BYE BYE BIRDIE (I can listen to her "English Teacher" any day) and NINE.

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"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy." -Charlie Manson

#17

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 6:29pm

I saw her show in San Diego on Saturday night. I was amazed and in awe at her performance. Not many performers, regardless of age, could be on stage the ENTIRE show, singing, dancing, and telling a life story like Chita did. I'm going back again. It's a must-see, even for people who aren't familiar with her work, as its a class in the history of american dance and musical theater. Simply terrifically amazing.

And my favorite recording, hmm..Kiss of the Spiderwoman. Though I do like that one track in Bring Back Birdie, "Well I'm Not" (or something to that effect, I can't remember the exact title).

#18

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/10/05 at 6:36pm

I'd say her top-notch performances are in Kiss of the Spider Woman and Chicago both because of the quality of the material and because of the dramatic impact she creates. But I also love listening to her singing "English Teacher," "What Did I Ever See In Him?" and "Spanish Rose" honestly I only listen to her songs in the Bye Bye Birde OBCR.

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"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

#19

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/11/05 at 3:19am

Her best recording is on "The Rink". She brought that score to life with Minnelli by her side. It's easier on the ears than the actual show was as well, having to watch them go for each others throats in that idiom was a lot to handle no matter how many times one saw the show.

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"It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance." - Elizabeth Taylor

#20

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/11/05 at 9:53am

The Rink. "...it cost me 4,000 dollars! Dance, Angel!"

#21

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/11/05 at 10:52am

THE RINK
followed closely by

WEST SIDE and BYE BYE

SPIDER WOMAN is good too.

Hell, I love 'em all!

She's the ultimate PUERTO RICAN THEATRE DIVA GODDESS.

#22

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/11/05 at 10:53am

BAJOUR, anyone?

#23

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/11/05 at 1:15pm

MERLIN.... Oh wait....

[Its Birdie. All the way.]

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There's always room for pathos - and jazz hands.

#24

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/11/05 at 1:21pm

her song "I Can Make It Happen" in Merlin is fantastic!

#25

re: Favorite Chita Rivera Cast Recording

Posted: 10/11/05 at 1:45pm

"Bajour" because my mom who is a Chita addict dragged me to see it when I was in the first grade. She was wonderful in the show. Even as a child I remember her being fiery and VERY sexual.