© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Slated for closure in June, Burdett Birth Center in Troy will remain open with new state funding

Chita: The Rhythm of My Life at The Colonial Theatre 7/31

Chita Rivera
Laura Marie Duncan
Chita Rivera

Incomparable two-time Tony Award Chita Rivera winner will recreate signature moments from her legendary career at The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on July 31. In addition to a tribute to her dear friends John Kander and Fred Ebb, the timeless music of Leonard Bernstein, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, Jerry Herman and Stephen Sondheim will also be featured, accompanied by her long-time trio.

Theatrical icon and living legend of the stage, Rivera is among the most nominated performers in Tony Award history and received the 2018 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. Among her many honors through a lifetime of performance and activism, Rivera was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2009 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2002.

(This interview was recorded in 2019 for an event at Helsinki Hudson.)

Stay Connected
Sarah has been a public radio producer for over fifteen years. She grew up in Saranac Lake, New York where she worked part-time at Pendragon Theatre all through high school and college. She graduated from UAlbany in 2006 with a BA in English and started at WAMC a few weeks later as a part-time board-op in the control room. Through a series of offered and seized opportunities she is now the Senior Contributing Producer of The Roundtable and Producer of The Book Show. During the main thrust of the Covid-19 pandemic shut-down, Sarah hosted a live Instagram interview program "A Face for Radio Video Series." On it, Sarah spoke with actors, musicians, comedians, and artists about the creative activities they were accomplishing and/or missing.
Related Content
  • The soul and jazz singer Ledisi will perform twice this summer at The Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York.This weekend she’ll take the amphitheater stage at SPAC as part of the 2022 Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival on Sunday, June 26th. She’ll return on August 3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra with her renowned “Ledisi Sings Nina” concert - a tribute to Nina Simone, which she’s also released as an album and a version was filmed for PBS as “Ledisi Live: A Tribute to Nina Simone.”Ledisi is an acclaimed and award-winning musician and actor and she joins us to talk about her career, her music, and her philosophy.
  • “Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau” is a memoir and travelog by Ben Shattuck, published by Tin House.Living through a dark period of early adulthood, Ben Shattuck, in quiet desperation, began to trace 19th century writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau’s hikes around the northeast. Many miles and several years later, Shattuck has written a meditative journey toward personhood - expressed by placing Thoreau’s writing alongside Shattuck’s writing and illustration.
  • In March 2020 - all of Broadway closed. All the marquees dimmed and an industry of creatives, thespians, technicians, and designers, builders, house managers, and many others were unemployed until at least August or September of 2021. As of now, many shows have moved back into their theaters and new plays, musicals, and revivals are opening in time for this June’s Tony Awards. In our Broadway is Back series, we’re going to preview several Broadway shows by speaking with an actor or director (or sometimes more than one) each day this week.First up: Brittney Johnson is currently toss-tossing her curls on stage at The Gershwin theater as Glinda in “Wicked.” Based on the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire, “Wicked” opened in 2003 with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Winnie Holzman, and was Directed by Joe Mantello. In the intervening years, “Wicked” has proven to be a global phenomenon. Brittney Johnson’s Broadway credits include “Les Mis,” “Motown,” “Sunset Boulevard,” and “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.”
  • Sonia Manzano, the actor and author who played Maria for nearly five decades on "Sesame Street" will be the guest in this spring’s edition of The Creative Life: A Conversation Series at UAlbany, appearing at the Performing Arts Center at 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 30. She will be in conversation with WAMC's Joe Donahue. That evening, also at UAlbany, Manzano will perform as part of a Selected Shorts live event which will feature Manzano along with Patricia Kalember, and Bhavesh Patel.