Chita Rivera

The World According to Micki Grant

June 9, 2024

Grant’s work is well-known to many, but this intimate, compact little revue featuring four actors, Matelyn Alicia, April Armstrong, Patrice Bell and Brian Davis, is an enjoyable, informative, and intimate love letter celebrating Grant anew. Although known for writing the 1959 single “Pink Shoe Laces” (sung by bobby sox darling Dodie Stevens), and the more visible musicals "Your Arms Too Short to Box with God" and "Cope," the evening’s offerings include many lesser-known works by Grant as well as unpublished songs, narratives, and poems, all demonstrating the broad, deep, and cutting edges of her humor, observation, and thought provocation in subjects running the gamut from love, war, rebellion, and justice. Days later, I’m still singing her two big songwriting numbers from the Stephen Schwartz musical "Working," “Cleanin’ Women” and “If I Could’ve Been” in my head. [more]

Remembering Robert Clary: From the Concentration Camps to Broadway and Hollywood

November 27, 2022

Clary scored a great success on Broadway in "Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1952." My father, who enjoyed that show, recalled Eartha Kitt and Robert Clary as the standouts in the cast of largely-unknown up-and-coming performers that also included Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, Carol Lawrence, and Ronny Graham. None of the performers were yet big names. And the smart, fast-paced revue gave them important exposure. (My father noted that this was an especially good revue, in a time when revues were still a staple of Broadway. He missed the revues when revues fell out of fashion on Broadway.) Producer/writer Leonard Sillman, whose various New Faces revues enlivened Broadway from the 1930’s through the 1960’s, helped advance the careers of plenty of talented newcomers over the years, beginning with Henry Fonda and Imogene Coca, the standouts in Sillman’s first revue in the series, "New Faces of 1934." [more]

Cool! The 60th Anniversary and Reunion Event: West Side Story

October 7, 2017

Each was asked about their first audition. Marilyn D’Honau couldn’t remember, although she clearly made an impression on Robbins who subsequently used her in "Gypsy." Tony Mordente, just an acting hopeful, was working in a Times Square Howard Johnson’s when he heard that WSS was being assembled and he showed up with no professional experience and managed to impress the powers-that-be. Some flew in from the Coast or Las Vegas or were known by Robbins before hand, like Ronnie Lee who was in "Peter Pan." All were reminded by Robbins before the opening night that they were “handpicked.” [more]

Chita Rivera at the Café Carlyle

May 22, 2016

She ran down the list of her Broadway co-stars: Ricardo Montalban, Donald O’Connor (the disastrous Bring Back Birdie), Antonio Banderas (upon whose shoulder she placed a shapely leg in Nine) and, her admitted favorite, Dick Van Dyke, with whom she co-starred in "Bye Bye Birdie" from which she sang “A Lot of Livin’ To Do” giving it a sassy, winking interpretation making it impossible to deny that the title is very on the mark. It wouldn’t be a Chita Rivera show without a mention of her iconic Anita in "West Side Story." A meeting with Leonard Bernstein to go over her songs just after she had been cast was nerve-wracking as she never had considered herself a singer. History has proved that her singing almost equals her dancing. “A Boy Like That” and “America,” complete with some mini-choreography were nothing short of electrifying. [more]

Saloons: Some Enchanted Evenings

May 14, 2016

Cabaret has always been a mixed bag. The golden age is gone. However, in today's schizo world of nightclubs, things are looking pretty good. It is a milieu unique in the entertainment industry. And, it continues to reinvent itself. The late cabaret critic Martin Schaeffer wrote in Back Stage in 1993,“There cannot be a better night of classic American music than a Bobby Short gig at The Carlyle.” He was right; especially if you're a purist of the Great American Songbook. [more]

TheaterScene.net Cabaret Honors: A First Annual List

February 23, 2015

The eclectic world of cabaret is unique in the entertainment industry. It allows artists' to connect with an audience in an intimate setting. Today, the clubs are ripe with new, rising and mature talents and the beginners who want to make it. But, who are today's torchbearers? Who will make their mark? And, who will take cabaret into its next phase? Time will tell. [more]

The Drama League’s 25th annual all-star gala, “A MUSICAL CELEBRATION OF BROADWAY”

January 29, 2009

Originally published on Theaterscene.net Jan 21, 2009. Original link: [more]

Nine

September 28, 2003

or all the handsome production values contributed by Scott Pask's handsome silvery unit setting and Vicki Mortimer's ravishing and revealing costumes, it is the presence and performance of Antonio Banderas, in the role of director Guido Contini (originated by the late Raul Julia), that pilots the action to perfection. Banderas, who is making his Broadway debut, proves an excellent choice both dramatically and vocally. That the Spanish-born actor was a member of the National Theater of Spain before he was discovered by Hollywood, accounts for his accomplished stage presence and the authority that he brings to both his singing and his character. [more]