You've got to learn how not to be/Where you are/The more you face reality, the more you scar/So close your eyes and you'll become a movie star/Why must you stay where you are? 

As Aurora, the dark vision of fantasy and title character of Terrence McNally, John Kander, and Fred Ebb's 1992 musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, Chita Rivera cast a powerful spell. Since her Broadway debut as an ensemble dancer in the 1950 production of Guys and Dolls - billed as Conchita del Rivero, shortened from her birth name of Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero - Chita had been transporting audiences out of their realities and into stunning new worlds onstage. Kiss of the Spider Woman proved a remarkable "comeback" for one of the theatre's - and indeed, the world's - most beloved dancers, a return to the Broadway stage after an automobile accident shattered her left leg in twelve places. But "dancer" was only one hat worn by the indomitable Rivera, who died yesterday at the age of 91.

With the smallest twitch of a finger, bump of the pelvis, or turn of her foot, she almost supernaturally embodied the character she was playing, whether the fiery Anita in West Side Story, long-suffering girlfriend Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie, tough-as-nails murderess Velma Kelly in Chicago, embittered mother Anna in The Rink, or the world's wealthiest (and most vengeful) woman, Claire Zachanassian, in The Visit. Yet those tough or edgy roles were only part of the Rivera story. She was a joyous Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, sassy Pistache in Can-Can, glamorous Liliane La Fleur in Nine, and mysterious opium den proprietor Princess Puffer in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Evil queens and sorceresses were also a specialty; see Broadway's Merlin or even the regional engagement of Casper: The Musical. It's a testament to Rivera that she believably portrayed both the sharp-tongued Nickie and vulnerable Charity in Sweet Charity, and both Velma and Roxie in Chicago.  She was equally thrilling as herself in such one-woman (plus her boys!) shows as Chita...and All That Jazz and Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, displaying both razzle dazzle and moving vulnerability.

Chita carried with her the spirits of Bob Fosse, Jack Cole, Jerome Robbins, and Gower Champion, among others, but they owed her as much a debt as she owed them. She brought to life their choreography with the intuition of an actor; she defined the triple-threat singer-dancer-actor. Most of her Broadway roles were happily preserved on cast recordings including such lesser-known shows as Mr. Wonderful, opposite her onetime flame Sammy Davis, Jr., and Bajour. (1983's Elmer Bernstein and Don Black-scored Merlin was a notable exception.)  Even divorced from her transcendent presence and striking onstage movement, one can hear on any of those albums why she was Broadway's finest and a muse to such songwriters as Kander and Ebb.

A Kennedy Center Honoree (the first Hispanic woman to be so honored), two-time competitive Tony Award winner, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Lifetime Achievement Tony, Chita was a mainstay of the stage for nearly seven decades. Her final Broadway role in McNally, Kander, and Ebb's 2015 The Visit found her willing to take on one of the most challenging roles of her career. Frightening and funny, it proved another triumph in a lifetime filled with them.

To watch or listen to any one of Chita Rivera's electrifying performances is to be taken out of the everyday and into a larger-than-life world of music and dance, guts and grit, laughter and tears...and all that jazz.

JM: I had the privilege of seeing Rivera numerous times over the past 25 years in venues large and small from New York to Pittsburgh, Las Vegas to Atlantic City.  My favorite Rivera sighting, though, may have been late one evening at Newark Airport's baggage claim after a long-delayed flight. There was Chita - always down-to-earth, kind, and funny - patiently waiting for her luggage.  But she wasn't alone.  She was, of course, surrounded by "her boys."  Chita was a luminous star through and through - even dressed-down in the middle of the night, likely returning home after a performance.  We shared a quick smile of recognition and a shrug as the luggage persisted in not arriving.  For that moment in her presence, the most mundane of places seemed as bright as the lights of Broadway.

Chita only released three solo albums in her lifetime (in addition to her numerous cast recordings and even some special appearances).  In 2006, Sony Masterworks collected some of her most memorable recordings (including "America" from West Side Story, "All That Jazz" from Chicago, and "Where You Are" from Kiss of the Spider Woman) on a volume of the label's Legends of Broadway series.  In 2012, Stage Door Records reissued her first two such LPs on one CD; read all about them here.  Fans are also encouraged to read her wonderful 2023 autobiography, Chita: A Memoir.