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Chita Rivera Conversation at NYPL Canceled Due to Illness
Her new book, Chita: A Memoir, is available to order today!
By: Nicole Rosky Sep. 18, 2023
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts just announced that its special event 'Chita Rivera in Conversation with Memoir Co-author Patrick Pacheco' has been canceled this evening, September 18.
The statement reads: "Unfortunately, Chita Rivera has tested positive for COVID, and will be unable to attend our panel discussion on Monday, September 18. We will follow up to all who have signed up for the event if we have any updates in the future. We hope to schedule a new date for this event. In the meantime, please keep Chita Rivera in your thoughts. We hope to see you soon at the Library for the Performing Arts."
The long-awaited memoir of the star of stage and screen, the legendary Chita Rivera-three-time Tony Award-winner, Kennedy Centers honoree, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, was released earlier this year.
She was born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero-until the entertainment world renamed her. But Dolores-the irreverent side of the sensual, dark and ferocious Chita-was always present center stage, and was influential in creating some of Broadway most iconic and acclaimed roles, including Anita in West Side Story‚ the part that made her a star-Rosie in Bye Bye, Birdie, Velma in Chicago, and Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Written in gratitude to her longstanding fans and with the hope that new generations may learn from her extraordinary experience, Chita takes us behind the curtain to reveal the highs and lows of one extraordinary showbusiness career-the creative fermentation, the ego clashes, the miraculous discoveries, the exhilaration when it all went right, and the disappointment when it all went wrong. Chita invites us into workrooms and rehearsal studies, on stage and on set as she works with some of the greatest talents of the age, including Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Hal Prince, Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis Jr, Gwen Verdon, Shirley MacLaine, and many others. We also learn deeply moving, revelatory details about her upbringing and her heritage, and how they indelibly shaped her work and career.
This colorful and entertaining memoir-as vital and captivating as Chita herself-is the unforgettable and engrossing personal story of a performer who blazed her own trail and inspired countless performers to forge their own unique path to success.
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