California Critics Get Pre-Broadway Look at Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life

Before Broadway gets to see Chita Rivera strutting her stuff, the Old Globe Theatre is getting a taste of Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life. The show—written by Terrence McNally, featuring new music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty and directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele—is running in San Diego through October 23 before beginning previews at the Schoenfeld Theatre on November 23. During its tryout, did the tuner prove a Dancer's Life is worth living?

Here is a sampling of what critics had to say:

Steven Oxman of Variety: "Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life is a refreshingly upbeat stage autobiography, a cleverly structured, sparingly sentimental homage to the musical theater and the people who devote their careers to it. Opening at San Diego's Old Globe on its way to a December Broadway berth, the show displays enough originality and pizzazz to have--pardon the pun--legs... Key pieces of Rivera's story overflow from first-person narration into actual theatrical compositions, aided by some excellent choreography, a supporting ensemble of diverse dancers, and by songwriters Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, who have contributed two new songs... She still looks phenomenal in her sequined dress with fishnet stockings, sings powerfully, demonstrates remarkable stamina as the second act becomes more demanding and, most important, makes up for lost flexibility and speed in two ways. First, she lets others do what she can't -- striking a pose and then letting her coterie of youthful dancers take it from there... Second, and more importantly, whenever Rivera dances, even if it's not what it once might have been, she sells it with enough flair to close the deal."

Lewis Segal of The Los Angeles Times: "Fewer songs than you might expect are Broadway classics—many more are irredeemably cheesy.... At 72, Rivera marks a lot of them and, at best, the effect is something like sitting with her at a piano while she re-explores old sheet music—intimate and often intriguingly meditative. She explodes into 'A Boy Like That' from West Side Story with all her old vocal power intact—but ventures only a fragment.... She looks great in her spangly black gown, moves with spectacular ease—except for a few high kicks that define the outer limits of her flexibility—and has a genius for distilling the splashiest show-dance styles in spare, potent body-haiku. But it's the anecdotes that flatten you, revealing an intelligence and sensitivity that deeply convey the versatility, glamour and camaraderie she finds in the word Gypsy... All that counts is the powerful connection between the audience and this battle-scarred, self-effacing, indomitably triumphant woman. So whenever the creators of Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life stay out of her way and let her talk about Broadway dancing, the show becomes an irresistible tribute to something much bigger than any single career: musical theater as a transformative experience on both sides of the footlights."

Jennifer de Poyen of The San Diego Union-Tribune: "This is not, mercifully, one of those musicals that try so desperately hard to please. It has the confidence, instead, to slow right down and let Rivera's moves work their fabulous mojo. At 72, Rivera still has the chops, God love her, but most of all the presence to command the stage… Terrence McNally's book reads something like a fireside chat with a Broadway legend who has earned the right to look back in fondness, even on the inevitable missteps, heartbreaks and near-disasters. This glowing approach has its limits, of course: For all the good feeling, there's a predictability to the shape of the narrative and the stories themselves that can make the show stall out between numbers. The beauty of this musical is how gracefully and articulately director/choreographer Graciela Daniele, her star and the ensemble tell the story through gesture and movement."

Paul Hodgins of The Orange County Register: "This bio-musical would be far less tolerable without Terrence McNally's puckish, intelligent script, which makes the most of Rivera's many anecdotes. The staging is at its strongest when Rivera reminisces about the famous people she has worked with over the past half-century…Your tolerance for diva-ish self-absorption may be sorely tested at times. And occasionally, Rivera ventures down paths best left to her fans' memories. Though still a remarkable performer, she's only human. At 72, her virtuosity has faded: the machine-gun-fast feet, the knock-out-the-lights kicks… Still, there's plenty here for Rivera's fans and dance and Broadway fans in general to enjoy. Rivera's performance is an exercise in Old Master cool: intimate, superbly controlled, with impeccable comic and dramatic timing. And there's the thrill factor, too, in watching a living legend. Like Marcel Marceau and Hal Holbrook, Rivera continues to wow audiences long after the age when other performers would have hung up their dancing shoes and put away the makeup sponge."