An evening of showstoppers and emotional highs as she retains the
vitality of youth but commands the respect and adulation for her experience.
September 10, 2013
Chita Rivera in “My Broadway” at The Palace, Cherry Grove
By: Jeannie Lieberman
(All photos by Jeannie Lieberman)
The apparently ageless Chita Rivera literally danced through the
audience and onto the stage creating her own tsunami of energy. She
could barely contain her own high spirits as she volunteered an encore of her
opening song “Sweet Happy Life.”
And, indeed, she certainly made everyone happy in the Palace.
La Rivera retains the vitality of youth but commands the respect
and adulation of her experience. It’s like “Been there, done
that…and still doing it.”
Never a great singer or beauty, she can still utilize her stage
presence enhanced by savvy choreographic moves to “sell” a song and her
irresistible personality to do the rest.
Further seducing the crowd, she admitted that she had been in the
Pines a number of years before but this is her Grove debut. “I
never came here because I was scared. So many of my friends said they were
going to the Grove and I never saw them again!”
Prefacing her one-woman show with her appreciation for being on
Broadway in a salute to the Golden Age (someone in the audience quipped it
should be renamed “the “Platinum” Age), she talked about how there was a show
in every theater…Bye Bye Birdie, West Side Story and all, and remarked
that a few years ago West Side Story celebrated its 50th
Anniversary. “And I’ve been pretending to be 35.”
She reminisced about how nervous she was when she was asked to
visit its composer Lenny Bernstein at his home for an audition. “I nearly threw
up on his piano.” Of course, she got the job as Anita.
And then came the first of the many memorable moments in this
marvelous evening. There is something almost mythic, definitely magical to see
and hear the woman who created the role in the original West Side Story
sing the same songs for which she was so famous 50 years later, the voice
seemingly unchanged, still strong, still compelling…especially in the intimate
environment of the Palace – and indeed many teared up as she sang the searing,
“A boy like that who’d killed your brother… Stick to your own kind,” and the
sassy “I Want to Be in America.”
She then made us all jealous counting off her leading men: Donald
O’Conner (Bring Back Birdie), Antonio Banderas (Nine) and Dick
Van Dyke (Bye Bye Birdie), launching into the optimistic,
percussion driven, “I’ve got a lot of living to do,” from Bye Bye
Birdie with staccato moves coupled with Sweet Charity’s “Where Am I Going.”
“Cy Coleman made my career” (Chicago, Sweet Charity, Kiss of
the Spider Woman, The Rink, The Visit). In her Cy Coleman segment, she
paid a compliment to Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. And when she was asked to
replace her friend Gwen she worried, “How will I step into her shoes?” until an
inner voice said, “Bring your own shoes,” to thunderous applause.
Then there was the saga of the Kiss of the Spider Woman –
which was being developed in Purchase, NY. Critics were asked to stay away as
the show was a work in progress. That was like waving a red flag – “so they
came and they killed it.” Producer Garth Drabinsky took it Canada and
saved it – brought it into NY and it was a sensation as was Chita in the title
role. (They originally wanted Donna Murphy but she can’t dance!) The show got two
Tonys.
She then performed a medley from that show including the title
song.
It was a different Chita now, darker, more reflective, illustrating
just how good an actress she is with the song from The Happy Time “I
Don’t Remember You” (...if I left you once before, somehow I can’t recall it
anymore…this moment is new because I can’t, I won’t remember you) and “Love and
Love Alone” (“every fond hello ends in farewell…so enjoy all the time there is…”)
from Kander & Ebb’s The Visit.
When approached to be in Coleman’s The Rink with her friend
Liza Minnelli she was told it was a mother/daughter role. “Which one is the
mother?” she quipped delivering a spirited, “Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.”
But it was when she attacked Jacques Brel’s “Carousel” that she
soared in an ever increasingly paced tongue twisting lyrics crescending to a
cataclysmic finale that brought the crowd roaring to its feet once again.
She closed with Chicago’s “Nowadays…in 50 years or so, its
gonna change you know,” which now had a special significance, followed by that
famous always recognizable Kander & Ebb vamp that leads into “All That Jazz.”
Ms. Rivera concluded with a specially written “Circle of Friends... a song for
friends who are dear, and friends that aren’t here.”
“Take care of yourselves,” she wished us as she finally left the
stage.
Because Rivera is a dancer, there is a special relationship with
her musicians so that each twitch of a hip, each staccato movement must be
synchronized and expertly timed and these extraordinary musicians, who have
been traveling with her for years, were up for the task: Jim Donica on bass,
Michael Patrick Walker on piano and music director/percussionist Michael
Croiter who seemed attached at the hip to his star… the audible underlay which lets
a star shine.
It was an evening of showstoppers and emotional highs that money
can’t buy and we must all thank producer Daniel Nardicio for this theatrical
gift!
Chita Rivera: My Broadway (August 17, 2013)
The 2013 Daniel Nardicio Icon Series
Ice
Palace, Cherry Grove Hotel, Fire Island, New York
For
information, visit www.dworld.us
