Cabaret

Chita Rivera at Birdland

 (Birdland; 140 capacity; $50 top, plus $10 minimum)

By STEVEN SUSKIN

Rivera

Presented inhouse. Music director, Michael Croiter. Opened Oct. 14, 2009. Reviewed Oct. 13. Runs through Oct. 17.
 
Band: Andy Ezrin, Jim Donica, Entcho Todorov, Charles Pillow, Jeremy Miloszewicz.
 

Broadway legend Chita Rivera is in top form at Birdland. The star is in for six performances, celebrating the release of her new solo album, "And Now I Swing," from fledgling indie label Yellowsound. Chita mixes 10 tracks from the album with a generous helping of her stage songs for an altogether winning and intensely enjoyable act.

Did someone say Rivera has been on Broadway since 1950, which is to say she's just now entering her 60th year on the boards? At 76, that makes her just a kid compared to the 85-year-old Angela Lansbury; but while Lansbury is still very much around, she would not likely undertake 80 minutes of solo song-and-dance.

Rivera, who has frequented the nitery circuit since her 2005 career-in-review opus "Chita Rivera: A Dancer's Life," seems to be having a grand time in her Birdland gig. She opens with the Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields "I Won't Dance," but she does. Not full-out dancing, given the reduced stage space, but Rivera demonstrates that she still has all the moves -- and they have become second nature.

Rivera's latest CD is described as "reimagining Broadway classics and jazz standards." These include "Sweet Happy Life," Vincent Youmans' "More Than You Know," Jacques Brel's "Carousel," Carol Hall's "Circle of Friends," and three from Kander and Ebb. Added in for Birdland are medleys from "Bye Bye Birdie," "West Side Story" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman."

Highlights are the K&E numbers "Nowadays," from "Chicago," with vestiges of the original Fosse staging; a rambunctious "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer," from "The Rink," in which Rivera all but mops up the floor; and "Love and Love Alone," from the still locally unseen "The Visit." This last, the most serious and least glitzy song on the bill, was especially chilling and brought the fans to their feet. Star will be taking to the road next spring under the title "Chita Rivera: My Broadway," presumably with this lineup.

House at Tuesday's invitational preview performance was packed with a hand-picked assemblage of friends. Musical-theater honor roll included names like John Kander, Terrence McNally, Bebe Neuwirth, Alan Cumming, Brian Stokes Mitchell, David Hyde-Pierce, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Harvey Fierstein and Tommy Tune -- and those were only the ringside tables. Seated front and center was Catherine Zeta-Jones, whom Rivera welcomed with warm praise for her turn in the "Chicago" film.

As the six-piece band played those instantly identifiable strains, Rivera told Zeta-Jones she's welcome to keep her Oscar -- so long as Chita can keep that vamp. And the ageless star launched into a convincing demonstration that she still owns "All That Jazz."