30 ▼ January 10, 1900 ▼ just cu t
C hita I s W ild
“CHITA RIVERA •
IN A BRING-DOWN-HOUSE-
Rivera rules in the upcoming Portland run of
PERFORMANCE”
K is s o f th e S p id e r W o m a n
▼
-Joel Siegel, WABC TV
by Christopher Kamera
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W
hen the curtain goes up for the
Jan. 31-Feb. 4 Portland stay of
Kiss o f the Spider Woman, The
Musical, local stage buffs are in
for a real treat— especially gay
and lesbian theater fans.
The Tony Award-winning musical arrives at the
Portland Civic Auditorium with its legendary star,
Chita Rivera, who won her second Tony for best
actress in a musical for her work in Spider Woman.
A T T E N T I O N
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If you are interested in
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or want to buy individual
or season tickets, call
503 . 242.1419
The show won a total o f seven Tony Awards in
1993, including awards for best score, best book and
best costumes. All these elements are showcased in
the touring company headed by Rivera. Hal Prince’s
legendary direction is another plus.
Kiss o f the Spider Woman, as most audiences
know, is adapted from the novel o f the same title
written by openly gay author Manuel Puig. Puig,
who died o f AIDS complications in 1990, won
international acclaim for his 1976 novel that told the
tale o f two prisoners in an undisclosed Latin Ameri­
can country— obviously Puig’sow n Argentina, pur­
posely unnamed for political reasons. One prisoner,
the campy, openly gay Molina, is
a window dresser who has been
arrested for homosexual activity
in a public restroom. His cell mate
is a political prisoner who may or
may not be guilty o f revolution­
ary crimes against the govern­
ment.
At first repulsed by the win­
dow dresser’s affectations and
swishy behavior, the silent, hunky
Valentin comes to tolerate Molina
and eventually to look forward to
M olina’s retelling o f his favorite
movies. These fantasy moments
bring the flashy Aurora, an imagi­
nary Latin American movie star
of yesteryear, center stage. Molina
lives for Aurora— his memories
of her movies provide the only
hope in his endlessly grim prison
life. She made only one film that
he didn’t like, Kiss o f the Spider
Woman. In that film, Aurora
played an angel-of-death charac­
ter, the Spider Woman who se­
duces men and lures them to their
death. The film dominates his
dreams— Aurora is all good, but
Chita Rivera
the Spider Woman is all evil.
The prison warden decides to turn Molina against
Valentin. The window dresser will be released early
to help his dying mother if only he will gain the
political prisoner’s trust and then betray him.
Puig adapted his best-selling novel for the stage,
but the Hollywood film version, starring William
Hurt and Raul Julia, is the best-known version of the
story. Hurt won an Oscar for his portrayal o f the
flamboyant Molina.
The musical version won Tony Awards for the
original actors playing Molina and Valentin. Brent
Carver, a British Columbia native, made his Broad­
way debut as the hairdresser and took home the
Tony for best actor in a musical; Anthony Crivello
won the award for best supporting actor in a musical
for his performance as the political prisoner. Both
performances are highlights o f the RCA original
cast album.
For the 18-month North American tour, Juan
Chi oran and Dorian Hare wood join Rivera in the
key roles. When the show played San Francisco in
December, Chi oran and Hare wood did solid work,
but the chemistry between the two men rarely
sparked. Both seemed to be giving performances
rather than inhabiting the characters.
On the other hand, Rivera, always the pro, illu­
minates the stage in her every appearance. The
lavish musical numbers spotlight Rivera. She struts
her way through production number after produc­
tion number, with a backup chorus drawn from the
beefy prisoners. She’s simply sensational in her
rendition o f “Gimme Love,” the Act I closing num­
ber. Another sequence finds her costumed as a
fantasy bird in the proverbial gilded cage. With
Spider Woman, Rivera finally joins the ranks of
Broadway’s legendary stage divas.
The only weakness of her role is its brevity—
since she’s a fantasy character re-created by Molina,
she has no dialogue with the two men. She arrives
only to dance in the colorful production numbers he
remembers or to menace with her Spider Woman
death mask.
At 62, Rivera has had a long career with numer­
ous ups and downs. Throughout that career she’s
been a champion o f cultural diversity. She created
the role of Anita in the original West Side Story and
was one o f the first Latina actresses to play a leading
role in a musical— as Rosie in the bubbly Bye, Bye
Birdie. Her work with John Kander and Fred Ebb,
creators of the musical version o f Spider Woman,
began with Chicago, which teamed her with the
legendary Gwen Ver-
don. H er w ork in
Kander and Ebb’s The
Rink, opposite Liza
Minnelli, won her her
first Tony as best ac­
tress in a musical. The
show, a mother-daugh­
ter tale set in a rundown
roller rink, was a leg­
endary flop, but it in­
spired the authors to
create Spider Woman
for Rivera.
There is little doubt
that the show’s creators
set out to conceive a
new musical form— a
chamber musical that
owes its inspiration to
o p era. W hen the
show ’s first staging
proved to be a disaster,
the concept was re­
worked and the fantasy
m o m en ts w ere a c ­
knowledged to be the
show’s biggest draw­
ing power. The show’s
m usical incarnation
seemed doomed from the first. A splashy out-of-
town workshop edition was covered by the New
York and national press, despite numerous requests
that the staging be treated as a work-in-progress.
Devastating reviews ruined plans for a New York
transfer, but sent the creators back to the planning
board to rethink and rework the concept.
After a totally new stage concept and major
revisions, Spider Woman opened in London, where
it was a major hit with Rivera in the title role. When
it finally arrived in New York, it was highly praised
by the critics. Amazingly, although audiences flocked
to the show, it was not a financial success despite a
nearly three-year run.
While Kiss o f the Spider Woman may not be the
decade’s greatest musical, it’s essential to recog­
nize the importance o f a serious, dramatic story with
an openly gay character at its center.
Kiss o f the Spider W oman comes to Portland
as part o f the Best o f Broadway series.
Tickets are available through TicketMaster,
charge by phone by calling 224-4400.