Feature: Coming Home Full Circle With Chita Rivera

It was a like coming home with Chita Rivera full circle and approaching a kind of comfortable closure when I attended the Signature Theatre's Sondheim Award Gala 2023 honoring the Broadway legend Chita Rivera at the Italian Embassy in Washington. DC. The iconic legend of theatrical music and dance (What a dancer she is!) was feted with the prestigious award from Signature Theatre and a warm response from a very "Chita-friendly" roster of performers and an audience of patrons, fans and supporters. (Rivera has also won about every award in the book including two Tony Awards, a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Kennedy Center Honor).

A native of Washington, DC, this woman had indeed come home for this honor, and I felt like I was coming home full circle as well. I thought about the numerous past moments of my life where Chita had influenced my artistic leanings and inspired me to live a life committed to my professional work.

I had ended up in the place that Chita Rivera had begun hers -namely, Washington, DC. Ms. Rivera had even come back previously to the DMV area in 2008 when she performed at the Signature Theatre in one of the regional premieres-pre-Broadway-of the Kander and Ebb/Terrence McNally musical The Visit -Ms. Rivera chatted with me so amicably in the lobby of the Signature Theatre after the show.

It is no wonder that this "professional's professional" is so well-liked ---Rivera treats her co-workers, colleagues and fans with respect and could almost be dubbed "a down-to earth" musical theatre diva.

At the Gala, when musical theatre star Natascia Diaz performed the Kander and Ebb song "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" from The Rink, my mind flashed back to the year 1984 when I saw The Rink with Liza Minnelli and Ms. Rivera. I was only thirty-one years old at the time and it was the first time I had ever experienced the talents of Ms. Rivera. I was bowled over by something in her aura or mystique----she held my attention with a visceral, tensile and sharp edge when she sang each song. (I now realize this was her discipline and technique).

The icing on the cake was that the friend I attended with had a friend who knew Ms. Rivera; this helped get me an introduction to Ms. Rivera in her dressing room. As Harvey Fierstein sat on a chair waiting for Ms. Rivera, she signed my lobby card and spoke to me so graciously. I went to see the show two more times and each time the stage door let out, Ms. Rivera was unfailingly gracious.

Back to the Sondheim Award Gala--- as performers paid tribute to Rivera and as I watched everyone perform, I mused to myself as to how fast time flows by. I thought about Rivera's history as the original Anita in Sondheim's original West Side Story. Singer Austin Colby sang a beautiful version of "Maria" that brought back memories --albeit of the version I saw with Debbie Allen in 1980 (for, indeed, I was too young for the 1957 version with Ms. Rivera).

Flashback: Time had passed and I had moved to Washington, DC from upstate New York to attend Catholic University and to start a full-time career in the federal government. As I became entrenched in my work, I had the chance to go to New York City to see Chita's triumphant turn in the spellbinding Kander and Ebb musical Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1993. I was so captivated by Ms. Rivera's portrayal of the film fantasy dream-icon Aurora that I went to see it twice. Ms. Rivera always was friendly and cordial when I asked her to pose for photos with me and my friends.

Flash forward to the Sondheim Gala and singer David Merino beguiled the crowd with a lively rendition of "Dressing Them Up" from Kiss of the Spider Woman. Getting absorbed in his rendition, I thought of the excitement of seeing Ms. Rivera's final performance in the classic Kander and Ebb show (though I must not forget her collaboration with the great book writer Terrence McNally as well). The theater was ablaze with the effect of her talent!

The Gala continued and I thought of Ms. Rivera appearing in the acclaimed revival of Maury Yeston's Nine in 2003 with Antonio Banderas starring. What a committed ensemble performance that was! My partner and I attended this riveting musical and were thrilled by Ms. Rivera as per usual. Chita played the enticing Liliane La Fleur and was vivacious and engaging.

Broadway and television and stage actress Mary Beth Peil appeared onstage at the Gala and talked of how Ms. Rivera had lost her voice one night and still went on like the trouper she is ---convincing the audience she was singing!

By the time Broadway stage star Jesse Mueller sang a beautiful rendition of "Somewhere" from West Side Story -----I knew that Ms. Rivera was about to receive her deserved award.

When Ms. Rivera was finally escorted to the stage to receive the award, I realized Ms. Rivera was indeed the epitome of grace under pressure and attention as everyone in the audience screamed and cheered her on ---it hit me like a thunderbolt that I had seen Ms. Rivera at pivotal points in my life and I realized she may have been a subtle influence on my perseverance and work ethic.

Chita's response to the award was so down to earth as she remarked "I guess I did all that work!" and thanked her ballet teacher for instilling discipline and the music of John Kander and the lyrics of Fred Ebb---She said she would not be where she is without them. (She also mentioned her new upcoming autobiography to be released this April---which I long to read!)

Humble and gracious to the end, Chita Rivera had come home full circle to her native Washington, DC to receive her Sondheim Award--- and I somehow felt that I had come home full circle with her.