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After Chita Rivera passed away earlier this year on 30th of January, a petition for renaming a Broadway theatre after her has surfaced. The Broadway actress had recently celebrated her 91st birthday when she passed, and was a true Broadway legend during her career. She has long inspired other Latin Americans to pursue dreams of Broadway careers in theatre and if the petition is successful she could very well add another first to her list of accomplishments.
Photographed above (from Left to Right) is Shirley MacLaine, Paula Kelly, and Chita Rivera in Sweet Charity (1969).
Born in 1933, Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero later became Chita Rivera. She was a Latin American actress, singer, and dancer. Across her career in Broadway she received two Tony Awards (10 nominations), two Drama Desk Awards, and one Drama League Award. She was a long standing Broadway legend due to her originating multiple roles in shows including Anita in West Side Story, Velma Kelly in Chicago, and the title role in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Chita Rivera made her Broadway debut back in 1950 as a dancer for the show Guys and Dolls. She carried on her career and her achievements grew all the way up to 2018 when she was the recipient of a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement and Time Out New York named her “one of the best Broadway divas of all time” the following year. She bowed for the final time on stage in 2015, but her acting career continued until 2021 when she appeared in the film Tick, Tick… Boom!
The petition was launched as of 15 March, less than two months after the actress’ death. The petition for renaming a Broadway theatre after Chita Rivera was originated by Eric Ulloa is author of 26 Pebbles and has been professionally acting since 2006. If this petition goes through, it would not be the first thing that was renamed after this Broadway legend. The Astaire Awards were upgraded to The Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography back in 2017.
Eric Ulloa states in favour of the petition that:
“Despite the countless contributions of our community, of the 41 active theaters on Broadway, not a single one is named after a Latin Artist.
Chita Rivera not only defined the term Broadway Legend, but was the torch bearer for the Latin Broadway community for seven decades.
Naming one of Broadway’s theaters after her, forever keeps her legend alive and allows our community a space to (finally) call home on the Great Bright Way!
Specific Theaters like the Broadhurst, Ambassador and the Broadway Theater (all Shubert Organization owned houses) could provide this massive honor and overdue moment for this legend and for the Latin Community.”
More information can be found at the link here where people can also sign the petition should they chose to do so. If the petition passes, this would make Chita Rivera the first Latin American artist to have a Broadway theatre named after them.
Janine has always been a part of music and performing. The first show that inspired her to go into theatre was the Velveteen Rabbit which she saw as a child, and Drew works to keep that magic alive in her work. When Drew was accepted into an internship program for audio engineering at a recording studio, she jumped at the opportunity. That was at the start of 2020, and so much has happened since then, both in her career and in the world. Since then, Drew has taken several opportunities to work at recording studios, concerts, festivals, and even large theatres while spending some time on tour. Drew's favorite by far though, has been the chance to work on Broadways and West End shows, as this was a dream come true. Drew is honoured to get to share these experiences from being inside the entertainment industry.
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