Chita Rivera: Bringing Herself

She would be the first to admit that she is more familiar with dancing on a large Broadway stage than singing in an intimate cabaret space. But when  two-time Tony winner and Broadway legend Chita Rivera takes the stage at Feinstein's this week for her return engagement, she will be combining the best of both worlds. "It's very enjoyable for me as opposed to what I'm used to doing," she says of the smaller nature of cabaret,  but insists that whatever kind of project she's working on, "one wants to bring oneself to all of them."

"I did cabaret years and years and years ago in Vegas and all over the world," Rivera recalls. "Feinstein's is very nice because it's very small and very intimate, sort of like in your living room." With only two other musicians and a conductor to share the stage with her, the show will be a smaller-scale  "conglomeration" of her most recent Broadway show, The Dancer's Life, and other songs from her career. "This is just a change for me, and I welcome it," she says, and adds that she appreciates "the feeling in the smaller clubs of being in your living room and everyone in the club being a friend of yours."

Rivera credits a strong family unit and plenty of support for her success. "My father died when I was quite young, but my mother was an amazing woman, and she was just there," she recalls. "Our family was a close family. We had respect for the family unit, and I think when you're fortunate enough to have that kind of support and love you can do many things." She passed that respect on to her daughter Lisa Mordente , and acknowledges the challenges in being a working mother. "I was married and had a career and tried to juggle marriage and bringing up a child," she recalls. Fortunately, she was able to bring little Lisa along with her to London when Bye Bye Birdie opened in England, continuing the strong family dynamic that she had learned. "Thank goodness I wasn't separated from her very much," she says. "Thank goodness that's not on my conscience."

After more than fifty years in the business, two Tony Awards, and a Kennedy Center Honor, the famously modest actress still doesn't seem quite comfortable with the title of "legend." "I don't really know what I am," she says softly. "I just know that I've been very fortunate and I've had a lot of great help along the way, and I took the challenge. I think God put it in front of me and said, 'Look what you've been fortunate enough to have done and had.'" The Kennedy Center Honor, a first for a Latin American performer, helped crystallize her accomplishments for her. "I think I've always been aware that I was that lucky, because you don't forget that kind of good stuff," she says, "but when you suddenly see the sum of it in one night, with wonderful talents that have taken their time out to honor you-- gypsies, the dancers themselves-- that's the beauty of the whole thing. When I saw it, I was extremely moved."

It is hard, she says, to name one part from that sum as her favorite show. "They all have a very special place in my heart, because they're all superb pieces of theatre," she says, praising the scores and books of all of her productions as "brilliant." "I came along at a wonderful time, so there are a lot of amazing shows. It's difficult to compare a Chicago with a West Side Story and a Spider Woman and The Rink. They've all been superb shows, but I think, when I basically come down to it, probably my favorite show was West Side Story." She credits "a few names like Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins and Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim and Shakespeare [for] the basic story" for the show's success, and describes the dancing in the show as "a breakthrough. No one had ever seen a show like this before. And that score is just amazing. It's lasted all these years!"

Having studied for years before and after coming to Broadway, Rivera knows how important it is to have good teachers and mentors in the business. "Training is vital," she says.  "It doesn't happen like it does on television shows. It just doesn't. Well," she admits with a laugh, "it does, but it just doesn't last that long!" Her own mentors and influences range from her mother to Doris Jones (her teacher in Washington, DC) to the School of American Ballet. "That was great training for me," she recalls. She calls legendary choreographer Jerome Robbins her "number one," and declares that "Fred Ebb and John Kander were extraordinary for me and my career." She credits her mentors and co-workers with helping her both professionally and personally. "My triumph has been meeting all these amazing people who are so talented," she says. "And they're my friends! And they're great. That's a triumph, in that they've bettered my life. Not just my professional life, but my life."

When asked what she would tell the next generation of dancers, Rivera pauses for a long moment before answering. "Be honest with yourself," she begins thoughtfully, then picks up speed. "Be truthful. Work hard. It doesn't come as easy as television makes it look. And don't think about competing. Think about being a good artist and about entertaining and about about telling stories. [Have] respect for the writer and the lyricist and the composer and the director and the choreographer. Listen. Most definitely, listen and learn. [Don't] think for one second that their career and lives are not connected, because they are. They're not separate. They are connected. One does touch the other. So you gotta be proud of what you do and who you are, if you can. You have to fight for that." 

While she may not be the first to call herself a legend, Rivera will admit to feeling proud of her innumerable accolades, if only because they represent the achievements of all those who came before her, and can encourage the next generation. "You do things not only for yourself," she says. "You do them for your teachers and for your family, and you hope to be a good example for the kids that want to have a career... If you're a good example, it makes them [think], 'If she can do it, maybe I can.'"

Chita Rivera will be at Feinstein's at Loews Regency until November 24th. Visit www.FeinsteinsAtTheRegency.com for tickets and more information.

Photo of Chita Rivera by Ben Strothmann