Chita Rivera
Feinstein’s/54 Below, NYC, October 10, 2019
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg for Cabaret Scene
The lights dim. A simple announcement. The on-stage combo starts playing “Nowadays,” and a spotlight finds the star in the audience. Not just any headliner but a true star, perhaps the last from the golden age of Broadway still performing. And if the voice is a bit husky and the legendary high kicks aren’t so high anymore, that really is irrelevant. It takes the diva no more than a sung phrase to embrace the audience, to make them not just admirers but friends. Her know-how allows her to arrive at a table of “extraordinary young men,” as Noël Coward put it, just as she reached the lyrics that announce “there are men everywhere” to large, knowing laughter from all and especially from the adoring young men. Then she is dancing across the stage, flirting with her band, as she launches into a song that sums up her approach to life, “A Lot of Livin’ to Do.” And there is no doubt—Chita is back!
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The song list held few surprises; it’s a cornucopia of the lady’s career highlights. Still, when that means such songwriters as Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields, and especially John Kander and Fred Ebb, the numbers never get old, and Rivera’s delivery is always fresh. The despairing passion of “Where Am I Going?,” the hypnotic “Carousel,” and the sweet regret of “I Don’t Remember You,” all were expressingly offered to the audience. Her tales of Jerome Robbins, Gwen Verdon, Helen Gallagher, and Bob Fosse, among others, remain funny and revealing but never mean-spirited.
One of her fun stories was about how, despite director Robbins’ dictum that the two “gangs” of West Side Story should not associate, she not only associated with a Jet but married him; together they created the only “Jet/Shark baby”—Lisa Mordente, who joined her mother on stage for a solo, “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” and several duets. One of the highlights of the evening was their joining in on a full version of “Nowadays” with Mordente adding a pitch-perfect imitation of Verdon. Together they recreated the original Fosse choreography.
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Backing up these delightful divas were music director Gary Adler, bassist Jim Donica, and percussionist Eric Poland. They all did yeoman work joining in the fun. This was truly a memorable evening that had a master of confidence, theatricality, and talent exactly where she belongs, in the middle of it all. Chita!
