Chita Rivera Given LPTW's Lifetime Achievement Award 12/9

The League of Professional Theatre Women is pleased to announce that its 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors women exhibiting exemplary service to the theatre, will be presented to two-time Tony Award®-winning actress/singer/dancer Chita Rivera. The award will be presented by her daughter, singer/dancer/choreographer Lisa Mordente, at the League's December 2010 Awards Luncheon.

Ms. Rivera's electric performance as Anita in the Broadway premiere of West Side Story (1957) brought her stardom, and her career is highlighted by starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, Chicago, The Rink (Tony Award®), Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award®), and Nine, among many others. In 2009 she was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, and in 2002 she received the coveted Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, as the first Hispanic ever chosen to receive this award.

Past recipients of the LPTW Lifetime Achievement Award include Dorothy Olim, Betty Comden, Ellen Stewart, Fifi Oscard, Martha Swope, Sylvia Herscher, Rosetta LeNoire and Lucille Lortel, among others.

The previously announced recipients of The Lee Reynolds Award and The Josephine Abady Award will also be honored at the December 9th luncheon. The Lee Reynolds Award is given annually to a woman or women active in any aspect of theatre whose work for, in, about, or through the medium of theatre has helped to illuminate the possibilities for social, cultural, or political change. The 2010 Lee Reynolds Award will be presented to Lynn Nottage, Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist, a 2007 MacArthur Fellow, and the recipient of the 2010 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. To honor the memory of member Josephine Abady, the LPTW presents an annual award to an early- or mid-career director or producer of a work of cultural diversity. The 2010 Josephine Abady Award will be presented to Kamilah Forbes, artistic director of the annual three-week Hip-Hop Theatre Festival.

The LPTW 2010 Awards Luncheon will be held on Thursday, December 9, 2010 at Sardi's (234 West 44th Street) beginning at 12:00 noon. Tickets are $65 and are available online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/122700 or by phone: 1-800-838-3006 option 1 (use event code 122700).

Chita Rivera
An accomplished and versatile actress/singer/dancer, Chita Rivera has won two Tony Awards as Best Leading Actress in a Musical and received seven additional Tony nominations. She recently starred in the Broadway and touring productions of The Dancer's Life, a dazzling new musical celebrating her spectacular career, written by Terence McNally and directed by Graciela Daniele. She recreated her starring role in The Visit, the new Kander/Ebb/McNally musical at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA (originally done at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago in 2001). She also starred in the revival of the Broadway musical Nine with Antonio Banderas. She trained as a ballerina (from age 11) before receiving a scholarship to the American School of Ballet from legendary George Balanchine. Chita's first appearance (age 17) was in the chorus of Call Me Madam. 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, Chicago, Jerry's Girls and (original Broadway casts) 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 on August 12, 2009. She received the coveted Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, DC in December, 2002 and is the first Hispanic ever chosen to receive this award. Chita has recorded and released a new CD entitled And Now I Swing and is on a nationwide concert tour of Chita Rivera: My Broadway. Her most treasured production is her daughter, singer/dancer/choreographer Lisa Mordente.

Photo Credit: Linda Lenzi