Photo Coverage: Chita Rivera Celebrates 80th Birthday On Stage with Ben Vereen and Tommy Tune; Inside the After Party!

Last night, October 7, Broadway ledgend Chita Rivera returned to the stage in Chita: A Legendary Celebration, which was produced by and benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The evening featured 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. BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the after party below!

Rivera, one of Broadway's greatest triple-threat talents was 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. Chita: A Legendary Celebration was 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 byTerence 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.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride