This week I chat with Patrick Pacheco who helped the late Chita Rivera write her autobiography – Chita: A Memoir. Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero – Chita – created some of Broadway’s most iconic roles, including Anita in West Side Story‚ Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie, Velma in Chicago, Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Claire in The Visit.
Patrick and I talk about these shows and such luminaries as John Kander, Fred Ebb, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Hal Prince, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis Jr., Gwen Verdon, and more.
FROM AMAZON.COM
The wildly entertaining memoir of the legendary Chita Rivera—multi–Tony Award winner, Kennedy Center honoree, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
She was born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero—until the entertainment world renamed her. But Dolores—the irreverent side of the sensual, dark, and ferocious Chita—was always present and influential in creating some of Broadway’s most iconic roles, including Anita in West Side Story‚ Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie, Velma in Chicago, Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Claire in The Visit.
Written in gratitude to her fans and with the hope that new generations may learn from her experience, Chita takes us backstage to reveal the highs and lows of one extraordinary show business career—the creative fermentation, the ego clashes, the miraculous discoveries. Chita invites us into the room with some of the greatest talents of the age, including Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Hal Prince, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis Jr., Gwen Verdon, Shirley MacLaine, and more.
This colorful memoir is the unforgettable story of a performer who blazed her own trail and inspired countless performers to forge their own paths to success.
“Chita Rivera blazed a trail where none existed so the rest of us could see a path forward.” —Lin-Manuel Miranda
“This deserves a standing ovation.”—Publishers Weekly
ABOUT PATRICK PANCHERO
Patrick Pacheco is an Emmy Award-winning TV commentator and arts journalist whose work has appeared The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire.com, Elle Décor, Art &Antiques, and several other periodicals. Formerly with NY1 “On Stage,” he now hosts the interview program, “Theater, All the Moving Parts,” on CUNY-TV. He wrote the 2009 Disney documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty and is the co-writer, with Maria Cassi, of the play, My Life with Men…and Other Animals which debuted at the Spoleto Festival, Italy and was adapted into an RAI Television special. His revision of the libretto of the classic Pal Joey premiered at the Arkansas Rep in 2013. He is the author and editor of the best-selling American Theatre Wing, An Oral History: 100 Years, 100 Voices, 100 Million Miracles.
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