by Nathaniel R
Memoir alert! For those of you who love showbiz biographies, take note that "Chita: A Memoir" is now on sale. The legendary dancer and multiple Tony winner Chita Rivera, turned 90 earlier this year. She was spurred to write the memoir (with the help of Patrick Pacheco) during the pandemic when there was so much down time.
Rivera and Pacheco are smart and know to drop the goods immediately; The very first chapter is on how she landed the legend-making role of "Anita" in Broadway's original incarnation of West Side Story... aka the greatest musical ever written. "Anita" is one of those roles. If you deliver, your career will never be the same again (just ask Rita Moreno and Ariana DeBose) but it all started with Chita.
Having just started the book, we can't speak to how often the memoir will return to the iconic musical but we wanted to share a couple of tidbits...
In the first couple of chapters there are wonderful details about the audition and rehearsal period and the hot tempers and egos of the creative team. The first reference to losing the film role is a tossed off shrug but the second (more convincing) details the flash of proprietary anger she felt when she first saw Rita Moreno in HER dress. The first fitting of that legendary purple dress is the bulk of the brief second chapter, amusingly titled "The Skirt Remembers".
Chita: A Memoir is, at least initially -- we're not far in -- not very invested in the movie version (little wonder since Chita isn't in it) but we wonder if the book will return there. That curiousity is, at least in part because Chita married fellow dancer Tony Mordente during the show's original Broadway run and they were still married when he transferred over to the film version.
Tony Mordente (center) is one of the few Broadway cast members to transfer to the movie (though he switched roles from "A-Rab" to "Action")
Play it cool, boy! Real cool. Their romance was loud and volatile but begins with a meet-cute at work:
From the moment we saw each other on the first day of rehearsals, there was a bolt of current running between the two of us. Which was kind of dangerous, since Jerry forbade the Sharks and Jets to socialize, and Tony was playing A-Rab, a Jet. We weren't even supposed to look at each other. For dancers, that's a tough rule to follow because we love to congregate, mix, and mingle. But like that moment in West Side Story when Tony and Maria come together in the dancer at the gym, Tony M. and I would sneak glances at each other, and the rehearsal hall would fall away.
"Isn't he cute?" said my friend Frances Taylor when she saw me looking at Tony executing some difficult steps with ease. "And, Chita, he's straight."
"You don't say," I replied nonchalantly. "He's such a beautiful dancer. I can't stop admiring his technique."
"Uh-huh, his technique," Said Frances with a smile. "Is that why his nickname is 'Buns'?"
Okay. I've always loved me a good solid, round rear end on a man. But I was first hooked on Tony's talent. Honest.
Recounts of dates that followed are also easy to picture, with Tony a loud expressive jealous Italian, prone to shout about his love for Chita in the middle of Times Square or getting into arguments with men who dared look at her. Chita surprised him quickly by being the one to propose. They met, got pregnant, got married, and became new parents, and Chita became famous. and began raising a little girl. All of this during the original run of West Side Story on Broadway and its subsequent run in London and the release of the film version while Chita was wrapping up her second huge success on stage with Bye Bye Birdie!
Their volatile romance would make a great 90 minute movie or even miniseries, each anecdote as easy to visualize as a little movie scene.
Chita's cameo in Best Picture winner "Chicago"... a nod to the fact that she was the original Velma Kelly
We can't wait to see "what happens next" even if showbiz is one long spoiler alert with multiple Tony Awards, Bye Bye Birdie, a divorce, Chicago, The Rink, Kiss of the Spider-Woman, Nine, and becoming a fabulous living legend all on their way post West Side Story.