At the age of 91, Broadway icon Chita Rivera, who originated roles in Chicago and West Side Story, passed away.
Chita Rivera has moved to a new place somewhere.
On January 30, the Broadway icon who created the character of Anita in West Side Story passed away. She was ninety-one.
A statement provided to E! News by Rivera's representative Merle Frimark stated, "It is with great sadness that Lisa Mordente, the daughter of Chita Rivera, announces the death of her beloved mother."
The statement said that Rivera's mother passed away peacefully following a brief illness.
There are currently no known specifics concerning Rivera's passing.
The statement does clarify that the funeral will take place in private and that information on a memorial service will be made available soon.
Together with Mordente's statement, Frimark also released a personal statement, which said, "It is with great personal grief that I announce the passing of the beloved Broadway legend Chita Rivera, my dear friend of over 40 years"
Having performed on stage for more than seven decades, Rivera was one of Broadway's most renowned actors.
She received eleven Tony nominations throughout her tenure, and in 1984 and 1993, respectively, she won two of them for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, for The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman.
The multihyphenate additionally won the Kennedy Centre Honours in 2002, was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Barack Obama in 2009, and was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 Tony Awards.
Apart from originating the character of Anita in West Side Story, Rivera also played the lead in Kiss of the Spider Woman and played Velma Kelly in Chicago.
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Rivera covered a crucial topic last year: sustaining a career this prosperous and wide-ranging, particularly in a field like theatre where performers are held to high standards night after night.
In an interview for the July–August 2023 issue of the Harvard Business Review, she stated, "You have to like and care about what you're doing."
It's not the play's fault if you find yourselves boring. You are to blame.
"Everyone in the audience may be cheering when I'm on stage, but if one person is sitting on their hands, that's who will catch my eye, and I'll feel I have to win them over," she went on. Your life is the performance at that very time. That's your breath. It's crucial.
Along with her daughter, Rivera is survived by her siblings Julio, Armando, and Lola del Rivero, as well as a large number of nieces, nephews, and friends. Her sister Carmen passed away before her.
