Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ to Do

Chita Rivera's fiery performance of the role Anita in the original Broadway cast of West Side Story made her a star. Rivera says a highlight of the experience was watching Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins create the musical. In Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin' to Do, Rivera performs a medley of her favorite songs from West Side Story, at a special concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

At Jazz at Lincoln Center, Chita Rivera sings "Carousel" from Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, the musical revue she toured with in 1970. Singer-songwriter Brel had a 1950s hit with "La Valse à Mille Temps", set to a waltz time. New English-language lyrics were written for the song --- renamed "Carousel" for the American revue --- by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman. A web extra.

In the original Broadway cast of Chicago the Musical, Chita Rivera played Velma Kelly and Gwen Verdon played Roxie Hart. Both were nominated for a Tony Award. "Nowadays," a Roxie Hart song, is also part of a duet between Roxie and Velma. The two Broadway stars were great friends and in Rivera's concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center, she sings the song in tribute to the late Gwen Verdon.

In Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin' to Do, the Broadway legend recalls performing with Maurice Chevalier on his television special in May 1956. Archival footage shows a young Rivera flirting and dancing with the older French entertainer, playing for laughs. At the time Rivera had already been in original Broadway casts, but her star-making turn in West Side Story was soon to come in 1957.

Chita Rivera co-starred with Liza Minnelli in The Rink, the tenth Kander and Ebb musical collaboration with book by Terrence McNally. It opened February 9, 1984. See Chita Rivera, who won a Tony Award for her role, perform "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" at her Jazz at Lincoln Center concert and --- in archival footage with her co-star Minnelli --- "The Apple Doesn’t Fall (Very Far From the Tree)".