STAGE REVIEW : Chita: Nonstop ‘n’ Then Some!

OK, who stole the exclamation point?

If ever one was appropriate, it’s appropriate after “Chita,” the one-word title that tells you all you need to know about this dazzling nonstop riff through actress-singer-dancer Chita Rivera’s Broadway career that opened Wednesday at the Westwood Playhouse.

If that exclamation point is missing in the title, it is certainly not missing in the performer. Rivera, who claims to be “105,” checks in at about half that age and looks and acts 39, is an unabashed, unalloyed, whirligig, goofy sensation.

On stage for nearly two hours in a swanky pair of outfits, a male dancer on each flank and a 12-piece band for back-up, Chita sizzles. Aside from the sheer physical marvel that she is and all that unstoppable exuberance, this lady can sing and dance.

I’ve been dancin’ since I was four,

So plant my feet on the floor ...

Well, they’re planted all right, but they don’t stay put, taking us from a wild rendition of “La Bamba” (“I’m going to start by doing what you expect me to do,” she says with a nod to her Puerto Rican heritage), through the rumbles of “West Side Story” (which first spelled stardom for Rivera), to the sass of “Chicago,” a musical specially written for her and Gwen Verdon. There’s plenty more, and not a dud in the lot, in a program largely defined by the songs and the special material of lyricist Fred Ebb and composer John Kander, who created “Chicago” and are avowed Rivera fans.

Rivera may have had a long and impressive career on the Broadway stage, and certainly gives us a generous sampling from such other compelling songwriters as Cole Porter (“Can-Can”), Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields (“Sweet Charity”), Jacques Brel and again Kander and Ebb, but if nostalgia is what you want this isn’t it. Rivera is an active verb living in the present tense, who even delivers her autobiography in rap.

But she also is a star and she knows it, in the best sense. She delivers. She also kids her male dancers--the excellent Robert Montano and Richard Montoya--about standing behind the white line taped off on the floor or else. They get their chance at bat in a funny duet about second bananas chafing at having to operate in the star’s shadow. It’s all handled with tongue-in-cheek relish that segues into a hilarious three-way send-up on the pain of dancing.

That dancing, the singing, the terrific Louis St. Louis band and some nice, underdone lighting effects by Rick Pettit, make this a smart and smashing entertainment, notable for its high style, voltage and class. It has been eloquently staged with judicious restraint by Wayne Cilento and Lisa Mordente, Rivera’s daughter. And the choreography--all verve and pizazz--is by Cilento, Mordente, Ron Field, Alan Johnson and Christopher Chadman.

But it’s Rivera’s longevity and contemporaneousness, her quintessential star quality, that combine with a nifty sense of humor and innate simplicity to deliver something unheard of: a Broadway baby who may have outlived Broadway itself.

She has certainly outlived its heyday, of which she may be considered a standard-bearer, and it gives you an awful twinge to re-live Broadway’s best moments knowing that, in these days of “Miss Saigon” high-technocracy, they may never be back.

Rivera doesn’t hesitate to go after Diana Ross or spoof “Swan Lake” or spoof herself for that matter. But anyone who radiates so much intelligence, can move with such agile grace, and look that terrific in Barton G’s slinky purple chiffon skirt and sparkling sleeveless top, later replaced by a dazzling silver-and-white pantsuit, can afford to take pot shots at herself. Chita Rivera is who any woman in her right mind would want to grow up to be.

The only bad news here is that the show, which Rivera says she put together from a lifetime of friendships (it shows), is in for a limited two-week run. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s the kind of evening that would make the sort of holiday package you wouldn’t want to miss. Not on a bet.

The crowd at Wednesday’s opening knew that. It brought Rivera back for an encore and begged for more. “I’ve been blessed,” she told us, feelingly, more than once. So have we.

“Chita,” Westwood Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 and 9 p.m.; Sundays, 3 and 7 p.m. Ends Dec. 1. $25-$35; (310) 208-5454 , (213) 480-3232. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

‘Chita’

An Eric Krebs presentation. Directors Wayne Cilento, Lisa Mordente. Special material Fred Ebb and John Kander. Lights Rick Pettit. Costumes Barton G. Sound Jon Gottlieb. Musical director Louis St. Louis. Choreographers Cilento, Christopher Chadman, Ron Field, Alan Johnson, Mordente. With Chita Rivera, Robert Montano, Richard Montoya.