CHITA: A LEGENDARY CELEBRATION Announces $40 Rush Tickets

An extremely limited number of $40 rush tickets to the spectacular benefit concert honoring and starring Chita Rivera will be released for sale at 6:30 pm Monday, October 7, 2013.

The rush tickets for Chita: A Legendary Celebration (#chita80) will be sold in the lobby of Broadway's August Wilson Theatre (245 West 52ndStreet). They will not be available at the box office. Tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis and are limited to two tickets per person. Cash or credit cards will be accepted. The show, which is produced by and benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, begins at 8 pm.

The evening will feature the Tony Award-winning Rivera, accompanied by an onstage orchestra, revisiting songs from her pantheon of Broadway hits, including Kander & Ebb's Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman, West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie and other surprises.

Regular priced tickets remain on sale online at broadwaycares.org/chita or by calling 212.840.0770, ext. 268.

Rivera, one of Broadway's greatest triple-threat talents will be joined onstage by nine-time Tony winner Tommy Tune, the iconic choreographer/director/performer, and consummate showman Ben Vereen, a Tony winner himself for the original Pippin.

Also joining Rivera will be several of her dancers from Kiss of the Spider Woman and The Dancer's Life, including Richard Amaro, Brad Bradley, Lloyd Culbreath, Raymond del Barrio, Robert Montano and Alex Sanchez, as well as Kyle Taylor Parker and Nathan Peck from Broadway's Tony Award-winning Kinky Boots.

Chita: A Legendary Celebration will be directed by Graciela Daniele and written by Terrence McNally with music direction by Michael Croiter.

Rivera has won two Tony Awards as Best Leading Actress in a Musical and received seven additional Tony nominations. She recently starred in the first Broadway revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and starred in the Broadway and touring productions of The Dancer's Life, a new musical celebrating her spectacular career, written by Terence McNally and directed by Graciela Daniele. She created her starring role in the new Kander/Ebb/McNally musical The Visit at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, and starred in the revival of Nine. Her electric performance as Anita in the Broadway premiere of West Side Story (1957) brought her stardom, which she repeated in London. Her career is highlighted by starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, The Rink (Tony Award), Chicago, Jerry's Girls, Kiss of the Spider Woman(Tony Award) and the original Broadway companies of Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, Seventh Heaven and Mr. Wonderful. On tour: Born Yesterday, The Rose Tattoo, Call Me Madam, Threepenny Opera, Sweet Charity, Kiss Me Kate, Zorba, Can-Can with The Rockettes. Chita was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2009 and was the first Hispanic woman chosen to receive the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002. Her current CD is entitled And Now I Swing (Yellow Sound Label) and will tour with Chita: A Legendary Celebration.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised more than $225 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.

Broadway Cares awards annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide and is the major supporter of the social service programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative and the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic.

For more information, please visit Broadway Cares online at broadwaycares.org, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/BCEFA, follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/BCEFA, watch us on YouTube at youtube.com/BCEFAtv, pin us on Pinterest at pinterest.com/BCEFA and tag us on Instagram at instagram.com/BCEFA.