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Chita Rivera, Broadway Legend From ‘Chicago’ and ‘West Side Story,’ Dies at 91
Broadway legend Chita Rivera, a two-time Tony winner and nine-time nominee, has died. She was 91.
Broadway legend Chita Rivera, a two-time Tony winner and nine-time nominee, died on Tuesday morning after a brief illness, her publicist announced. But her steadily growing profile sky-rocketed in 1957, when she appeared in “West Side Story.” Conceived, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, with book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, the production was revolutionary, merging a jazzy score with a gritty, urban take on “Romeo and Juliet.” The performers wore sneakers and jeans, snapped their fingers and spoke in slang. Born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero in Washington, D.C., to a Scottish mother and a Puerto Rican father, Rivera was a tomboy from a young age.
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