There I was, snuggled into my front mezzanine seat in the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (known to generations of theatre-goers as the Plymouth) one Sunday afternoon not long ago. I was there for the final performance of Chita Rivera—A Dancer’s Life. It was an autobiographical show, exploring the biography and career of Chita Rivera, the ultimate Broadway dancer, who, at 72, can look back on a career that spans almost sixty years.

Playwright Terrance McNally arranged a script that tells you everything you want to know about Miss Rivera in two and one half hours. I’m not sure I’d want MY life story condensed on stage by Mr. McNally, even though his skill at devising bitchy dialogue surpasses even my own.

The esteemed author of such gay plays as The Ritz, The Lisbon Traviata, and Love, Valor, Compassion as well as several of Miss Rivera’s hits including The Kiss of the Spider Woman, writesplays that sometimes lack that human touch, leaving one a trifle cold. "Cold" though, is not an adjective that can fairly be applied to Chita. Her dancing (with the dancer always in black) in such shows as West Side Story, Bajour, Bye Bye Birdie, Merlin, and especially Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman, was quite warm indeed. Her artistry seemed very close at hand and personal in this production.

Chita, owner of two of the most gorgeous legs that ever graced a stage, danced as if she were a young girl. What’s her secret? Maybe it’s that she has never stopped dancing, except for the terrible time she broke a leg in 1986 and was told she would never dance again. Wrong.

Chita first attracted notice as the hoydenish Anita in West Side Story. I was glad Miss Rivera danced and sang "America" in her recent show, because as far back as Chita and I go (not personally, sadly, but from the audience) she came into my life after West Side Story, with 1960’s Bye Bye Birdie. Audiences were galvanized by Chita’s electrifying energy when West Side Story was new, and more than 48 (forty-eight!) years later, she did it again.

Miss Rivera’s career as a Broadway gypsy, dancer, and star, goes back to the turn of the 1950s. The star was touching when she spoke of her pain when she lost the role of Anita in thefilm of West Side Story to Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar for it. But, being a creature of the theatre, Chita admits to doing the same thing to another Broadway regular—Helen Gallagher, when Chita got her role in the film of Sweet Charity. Legends can also have fun. You may have noticed her in a cameo appearance as a jail inmate in the recent movie version of Chicago, where Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones had the Chita and Gwen Verdon parts.

During A Dancer’s Life, Miss Rivera also imparted a little gossip to us. The exhilarating dance numbers created for the Sharks in the original West Side Story (like "Dance at the Gym") were actually the work of yeoman choreographer Peter Gennaro, but have always been attributed to Director Jerome Robbins. I love backstage gossip and thanks to Chita, Gennaro, better late than never, gets his due.

To be honest, what I really love are the big Broadway musical flops and success d’estimes. I love them as much as hits. So, I was a little sorry that Miss Rivera didn’t perform any numbers from Merlin, Bajour (heard of it?), or Bring Back Birdie (the fabulously awful sequel to Bye Bye). Still, I was kept busy feasting on excerpts from Chicago, The Rink, and her other musicals of note.

Chita had me in tears (she was in tears, too) when she spoke of her great friend and colleague, and her only peer as a dancer, Gwen Verdon, who left us some years ago. Then she performed the number "Nowadays" (originally a duet for the two stars) with a second spotlight illuminating the place where Gwen Verdon would have stood. Either of them could lay claim to the title Broadway’s Best Dancer.

In between musical numbers, Chita, as edited by Terrence McNally, spoke of her early life, her family, and even her failed marriage, but making sure to mention her beloved daughter Lisa Mordente, the product of that union.

Chita also shared some of her philosophy, which might be summed up as "work hard, be a good colleague, and you’ll get where you want to go." Good advice for pretty much any career, but so important in the theater.

A Dancer’s Life had structural flaws that might be discussed for days. But in the end, that’s of little importance, because through her singing (yes, that smoky, silky voice is still intact) and dancing, Chita Rivera brought some of the great moments of the musical stage to life once again. One of Puerto Rico’s many great gifts to this country’s artistic life, Chita is truly deserving of the Kennedy Center Award bestowed upon her in 2002. If you ever have an opportunity to see Miss Rivera, don’t you DARE miss it. She’ll probably only be dancing until she’s 90.