Broadway Icon Chita Rivera Signs With HarperCollins For Her Memoir

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From West Side Story through Bye Bye Birdie, from Chicago to Kiss of the Spider Woman, one actor has been a constant – Chita Rivera.

Now, the two-time Tony winner is recapping her Broadway career for HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, which announced her memoir today. The book, publication release date set for early 2023 and title to be determined, will also be published simultaneously by Harper Español. Rivera will be writing with Emmy-winning TV commentator and arts journalist Patrick Pacheco.

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Lisa Sharkey, SVP director of creative development, HarperCollins Publishers, acquired North American rights for English and World for Spanish, first serial, and audio from Mel Berger at WME. The book will have Rakesh Satyal as executive editor, HarperOne Publishing Group, and will be edited with HarperEspañol editor Ariana Rosado-Fernández.

Rivera is one of the most nominated actors in Tony Awards history, garnering 10 bids during her long career. She plans to detail her associations with Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Hal Prince, Gower Champion, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Jerry Herman, and other titans of the Broadway world. She will also share her stories about Gwen Verdon, Elaine Stritch, Dick Van Dyke, Liza Minnelli, and Sammy Davis Jr., among others.

“I’ve long considered writing my memoirs, but I’ve never been one to look back…until now,” Rivera said in a statement. “Now it feels right, and with Patrick Pacheco, I couldn’t be more pleased to pass on my experience to a new generation. I hope my words and thoughts about my life and career resonate and readers just might discover some things about me they never knew.”

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