Rivera Can-Can Still Kick Up a Storm : ‘Bionic leg’ hasn’t broken the stride of the veteran dancer

Chita Rivera was a 14-year-old dance student when she auditioned for George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. In the middle of her fouettes , the Broadway veteran remembers, the formidable “Mr. B.” stopped her, pointing to some blood on her foot.

“I had a blister,” she says, “and I was so nervous and excited I didn’t even know I was in pain. He cut off my stocking for me, put a Band-Aid on my foot, I went right back on pointe and got my scholarship.”

Her teen-age fortitude was no fluke. After a 1986 car accident crushed her leg, she gritted her teeth through months of painful physical therapy and topped off her recovery by signing to star in a revival of Cole Porter’s “Can-Can,” which opens Dec. 13 at the Pantages Theater.

Now 55 and nearing the end of her stint in a national tour that began early this year, Rivera is pleased to report that her “bionic leg,” reinforced by a metal plate and 12 screws, is performing as well as her undamaged one.

“Cartwheels and splits a problem? Are you kidding?,” she says with a laugh. “I’ve done that so long I can do it in my sleep. I’m very supple and I’ve had excellent ballet training. My (damaged) leg is heavier, I have to be more aware of certain things and there are adjustments to make. But that’s for me to know and nobody else--that’s called ‘doing your work.’ ”

Rivera was a chorus dancer in the original 1954 Broadway production of “Can-Can,” a show that launched Gwen Verdon’s career. Rivera says Verdon was the first person to encourage her to widen her career focus.

Verdon remembers her as “an extraordinary dancer and singer who was much too good to be buried in the chorus.” Of her current post-accident performance, Verdon says: “When I saw the show I couldn’t believe she was dancing like that. She’s still better than all the rest of the dancers in the show.”

This time around Rivera plays Parisian cabaret owner La Mome Pistache and reports a few changes in the show, which features 13 Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. “Normally the part of La Mome is not danced,” she says, “but we felt that people coming to see me would expect me to dance, so now the La Mome and Claudine characters share dance numbers.

“Actually, there’s less dancing in this show than in the original and it’s less acrobatic, because the Rockettes are best known for their kick line and formations, not for acrobatics. So the show has taken another shape, which makes it interesting, and it’s good for the Rockettes--they’ve learned to do other dancing besides just lining up and kicking.”

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At 17, Rivera segued from ballet school to Broadway after she accompanied a friend to a chorus audition for “Call Me Madam” and won the part. After also dancing in “Guys and Dolls” and “Can-Can,” she broke through to major recognition in 1957 as Anita in “West Side Story,” and later starred in such shows as “Bye, Bye Birdie,” “Sweet Charity” (the national touring company) and “Chicago” (with Verdon), garnering six Tony nominations along the way, and Tony and Drama Desk awards in 1984 for “The Rink.”

Between shows there were numerous television performances and tours with her nightclub act, which brought her visibility beyond Broadway. She also played a secondary role in the movie version of “Sweet Charity.” A major Hollywood career did not materialize.

“I adored doing that movie,” she says, “and had they been doing any musicals after that and if they’d been offered to me and if I had liked them, I may very well have stayed in California and done more films.”

But the movie musical cycle of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s ended. And that was perfectly all right with Rivera. “I happen to love live theater and I would always have missed it. The real challenge to me is to see and feel it happen right away on stage--there’s nothing like that.

“You know, people think you stand and choose what you want to do. I have preferences, yes, but it’s not like I had a list of movies and shows I wanted. A door opens and you go through. I was asked to do the movie of ‘West Side Story,’ but I was in ‘Bye, Bye Birdie’ on Broadway and I couldn’t.

“If they’d said, ‘We’ll wait for you,’ that would have been wonderful, but that’s a dream and I’m not a dreamer. I think any actor who’s created a role would like to do the film, but if there’s a preference, give me the play.”

After nearly a year on this tour Rivera is looking forward to returning home to New York for a while. (Married in the late ‘50s, she is now divorced, with a grown daughter.) “I’m not really thrilled about being on the road,” she says, “but I took this show to get back into shape after my accident, as a woman and an athlete, and it’s been great for me.”

“Eight shows a week is tough but it’s what I do--it’s something my mind and body are used to. And dancers are masochists anyway--they don’t know how to do it any other way.”

Looking ahead, Rivera says, “I have the feeling that my career is moving gradually and, I hope, gracefully into acting and possibly dancing. When you can still dance you don’t want to give all of that up. If there’s a straight acting role, of course I’ll take it. But I can’t imagine myself yet, though, with no music behind me.”