Chita Rivera

The ten-time Tony-nominated actress, dancer, and singer Chita Rivera discussed her extensive career on Broadway in musicals such as West Side Story and Chicago with Broadway director John Doyle, a professor in Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts. The discussion took place on Monday, December 12 at 2 p.m. in the James M. Stewart ‘32 Theater at 185 Nassau Street as a part of Doyle’s fall course, “Luminaries of the American Musical Theater.” Presented by the Lewis Center’s new Program in Music Theater.

Doyle’s course focuses on seven icons of American musical theater in the past 60 years, specifically Michael Bennett, Bob Fosse, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Harold Prince, Jerome Robbins, and Stephen Sondheim. Students are examining the influences of these icons on the evolution of American musical theater by studying the scripts and performances of musicals, presenting new production ideas for these plays, and engaging in lectures given by visiting professional musical theater figures who worked closely with these masters. Rivera discussed her work with Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Kander and Ebb, and other musical theater luminaries.

Rivera has won two Tony Awards as Best Leading Actress in a Musical and received eight additional Tony nominations for a record ten Tony nominations over her career. Her electric performance as Anita in the original Broadway production of West Side Story brought her stardom, which she repeated in the London production. The series is supported in part by the David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project in the Council of the Humanities.

For more information on the Program in Music Theater, visit arts.princeton.edu.

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