The three-time Tony Award honoree is working on a book with journalist Patrick Pacheco.
By
Logan Culwell-Block
January 28, 2022
Chita Rivera
Three-time Tony honoree Chita Rivera is writing a memoir, with journalist Patrick Pacheco as co-author. The upcoming book, which is reported by the New York Times to be scheduled for a 2023 release from publisher HarperOne, will cover the West Side Story and Chicago star's early life and long Broadway career.
The project is not Rivera and Pacheco's first collaboration; Pacheco was credited with "biographical research" on Rivera's 2005 autobiographical solo show Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life.
With a more than 60–year career on Broadway, Rivera is perhaps best known for creating the roles of Anita in West Side Story, Rose in Bye Bye Birdie, Velma in Chicago, and Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman, winning Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical Tony Awards for Spider Woman and The Rink. She was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2018, recognizing a career that also includes performances in Nine, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and, most recently, The Visit. Rivera is closely associated with the writing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, having starred in their musicals Chicago, The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and The Visit, but the memoir will also cover working with such theatrical luminaries as Stephen Sondheim, Bob Fosse, Dick Van Dyke, Arthur Laurents, Gwen Verdon, Leonard Bernstein, Liza Minnelli, and Hal Prince, among others.
