Chita Rivera with Patrick Pacheco
When I was a “baby agent” back in 1954, my job as a new recruit was to discover young performers, composers, writers. directors, and any others with talent for musical theatre–the special area to which I was assigned. I was to sign those I found gifted to agency contracts and then to nurture and advise or just to help open doors for them. My job was to visit the workshops where their early efforts were on display; or I was to hold auditions, to visit the community theaters, to seek those very special talents that would eventually join the masters–the great stars and major writers who were supplying Broadway with the musicals people wanted in the new Golden Age of Broadway which followed World War II. It’s always good to be young when you enter the world of work; it was especially good for those of us who were determined to have a life in the theatre.
On one rainy night in 1954 I stumbled in to a dingy off off Broadway theatre where a whole bunch of newcomers were strutting their stuff in a show aptly called “The Shoestring Review.” It had been produced for all of $18,000 which meant it did not rely on spectacle to put it over. It did allow bright talents like writer Michael Stewart to announce his arrival on the scene, and it featured a small cast of disparate types including the highly original Chita O’Hara (that is Chita Rivera who tried on several names before she wisely stuck with two of her very own.) She had been trained as a ballerina but before she got started on that career, destiny placed her into a touring Broadway musical theatre chorus, where she found herself totally at home. How she landed in a dancing role that required her to sing and to use major comic chops as a comedienne is captured with all the surprise and fun that she felt herself as she blossomed into a triple threat. I offered my agency services, she accepted me, and we remained client and very happy agent for the next 20 years. It’s all there in this honest and greatly detailed account of the sixty year saga of a remarkable life well spent.
I am proud to have been a footnote to all of it, and it is a joy to note that she has now shared with us her varied experiences that included love, marriage, motherhood, prestigious awards, much success, and time for meaningful friendships and connected life with her brothers and their own families. At ninety, she is still a force and I highly recommend you take the time to sit back and relish this very special memoir of a well lived life.