Happy birthday, Steve On Broadway!

This song goes out to Steve on Broadway, with love. Happy birthday my dear friend, and thank-you for always lifting my spirits.

Here are Paula Kelly, Chita Rivera and Shirley MacLaine in the 1969 movie Sweet Charity, singing "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This."

A medal for Chita Rivera

Congratulations to two-time Tony winner Chita Rivera, among this year's 16 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation's highest civilian honor.

The award will be bestowed today at the White House by President Obama and you can watch the ceremony beginning at 3 p.m. at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

And what a great homecoming for the 76-year-old Washington, D.C., native, born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero. Here is what she said when the award was announced:

"When my mother was a child, she rolled Easter eggs on the lawn of the White House. And now, to receive The Medal of Freedom from our President, is truly a dream. I am deeply honored to receive this award and to be in such distinguished company. I only wish my parents were here to share it with...but they are!"

This year's recipients were chosen for being "agents of change," people who have blazed trails and broken down barriers.

Among her accomplishments, Rivera was the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center honor. And coincidentally, also visiting the White House today is another Latina groundbreaker: there's a reception this morning for newly sworn-in Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. How fitting!

I've written before about how fortunate I was to see Ms. Rivera in the national tour of Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life. That was in May 2007, when I was just starting to become a regular theatergoer. I knew who she was but I can't say that I knew a lot about her. And I never would have gone without a nudge from a wise friend.

I remember writing to my new e-mail pal Steve on Broadway and running down the list of everyone who was coming to the Providence Performing Arts Center that spring. He told me that if I wanted to see a true Broadway legend, I should make every effort to see Chita Rivera. So of course, I did. And of course, he was right.

What a terrific storyteller as well as a terrific singer and dancer! It was great to hear her talk about how she got her start, about working on shows like West Side Story and Chicago. I wish I could go back and see her again.

Update: Here are the White House comments on all of the Medal of Freedom recipients. The president used the words "sassy" and "electric" to describe Rivera, and I liked this quip: "Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero knows that adversity comes with a difficult name."

Still kicking

I had the privilege of seeing the legendary Chita Rivera on stage in May, as she toured with her show "Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life." Wow. Watching her sing, dance and tell stories, it was so hard to believe I was watching a woman who will turn 75 next month.

And she's a great storyteller as well as a talented singer and dancer. I loved hearing her talk about what it was like starting out, all the people she's worked with, including Dick Van Dyke, Gwen Verdon and Antonio Banderas. I really got a sense of her life, her career, what the dancer's life on Broadway is like, and what keeps her going.

So I was pleased to find out that in celebration of the 50th anniversary of "West Side Story," Rivera and some of the other original cast members from the landmark musical performed on Monday during the annual Gypsy of the Year competition sponsored by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

At the Broadway Cares Web site you can look at pictures, like the one above, taken by Jay Brady, and watch the tribute to "West Side Story," which opened on Broadway on Sept. 26, 1957 at the Winter Garden Theatre.

The Gypsy of the Year is the culmination of six weeks of intensive fundraising, during which more than 64 Broadway, off-Broadway and national touring companies solicit donations for Broadway Cares. This year, they raised more than $3.9 million that will go to food banks, health clinics, and AIDS and family service organizations across the United States.

Broadway's "gypsies" are the talented dancers and singers who start out like Chita Rivera - in the chorus, and dream of someday having their own star turn.

At the end of "The Dancer's Life," Rivera said she often think of the one person in the audience who may be inspired to become a dancer, and that makes it all worthwhile. Whether or not you become a dancer after seeing this theatrical icon, she's definitely an inspiration.