Recommended Free Tools
Chita Rivera, the Tony-winning Broadway performer whose career stretched across seven decades, died in New York on January 30, 2024, at age 91. Her daughter, Lisa Mordente, announced that Rivera had died after a brief illness.
Who was Chita Rivera?
Rivera was a dancer, singer and actor whose work helped define generations of American musical theater. She first came to wide attention as Anita in the original Broadway production of West Side Story in 1957. That breakout role began a Broadway career lasting seven decades, marked by both commanding performances and a rare ability to keep working after a devastating injury.
In 2018, accepting the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, Rivera said, “I wouldn’t trade my life in the theater for anything, because theater is life.” The Associated Press also reported her 2015 description of her drive to perform: “I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t moving or telling a story to you or singing a song.”
Which Broadway shows was Chita Rivera in?
Rivera’s Anita in West Side Story was the early signature, but it was one part of a long stage career. Roles in these productions became central to her legacy:
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
#1 Best Overall
- West Side Story (1957): Anita brought Rivera wide notice in the original Broadway production.
- Bye Bye Birdie: A major role in the musical theater career that followed her breakthrough.
- Chicago: One of the celebrated productions in which Rivera performed.
- The Rink: The performance earned her one of her two competitive Tony Awards.
- Kiss of the Spider Woman: A later Broadway return after her 1988 accident, and the production that brought her second competitive Tony.
Those titles are landmarks, not a complete inventory of her work. Her career encompassed seven decades on Broadway, and she continued to perform after the roles for which she is most often remembered.
How many Tony Awards did Chita Rivera win?
Rivera received 10 Tony nominations and won two competitive Tony Awards: for The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman. She also received the 2018 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. That special honor is distinct from her two competitive wins.
How did Rivera return to the stage after her accident?
In 1988, while appearing in Jerry’s Girls, Rivera was in a traffic accident that crushed her right leg. She underwent months of physical therapy before returning to dance and performance. “It never entered my mind that I wouldn’t dance again. Never,” she later said, according to the Associated Press.
Her return to Broadway in Kiss of the Spider Woman made the recovery part of her stage story, but it did not define the whole of it: Rivera went on performing after the injury.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
How Rivera was remembered
In a statement issued January 31, 2024, President Joe Biden called Rivera “an alltime great of American musical theater” and described her as a pioneer whose performances brought joy to millions. The statement, reproduced by The American Presidency Project, also noted her Presidential Medal of Freedom and Kennedy Center Honors.
Rivera also left a first-person account of her life in Chita: A Memoir, written with Patrick Pacheco and published in 2023.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
