THEATER REVIEW:Chita Rivera relives her high-kicking life

It’s been a half a century since Chita Rivera broke out of the chorus and into history as Anita in the original Broadway production of “West Side Story,” but you couldn’t tell it by looking at the lady herself.

Rivera, who headlines the musically autobiographical show “Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, can kick up her heels and belt out a show-stopping number with the best of them — no matter that she once suffered a devastating leg injury in an automobile accident and that she turned 74 two months ago.

Her life, it seems, would make a good musical with all the appropriate highs and lows — from the “Dancing on the Kitchen Table” days with her large Latino family in the nation’s capital through the first ballet class, her “gypsy” days in early 1950s musicals and into the biggies like “West Side Story,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Sweet Charity” and “Chicago.”

Such a show would be capped by a series of honors — Tony awards for “The Rink” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and a Kennedy Center lifetime achievement laurel, the crowning glory moment that bookends this touring production. She may be primarily a dancer, but the vocal power and acting chops are present in abundance in this tribute written by playwright Terrence McNally.

A highlight of the first act arrives when Rivera recounts her audition for “West Side Story,” and was asked to sing “A Boy Like That.” After a few comical fits and starts, she homes in on the Anita character and delivers the song with the visceral bravado she’s been known for ever since. “I got the job,” she needlessly adds.

When Rita Moreno was cast as the movie’s Anita, she quips, “I wanted to kill myself.” When Moreno won the Oscar, Rivera grimly but grinningly added, “I wanted to kill her.”

A quartet of numbers from “West Side Story,” a couple from “Bye Bye Birdie” and the signature “Big Spender” from “Sweet Charity” follow, with Rivera in full voice and form. She also scores mightily when she gives her audience a song that was cut from the movie version of “Chicago,” the comically delightful “Class.”

After intermission, Rivera offers a rundown on the men in her life, chiefly “West Side” dancer Tony Mordente, with whom she produced daughter Lisa — who also appears among the backup dancers. And her tribute to the master choreographers — Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, etc. — includes special recognition for Peter Gennaro, who created much of her work in “West Side Story.”

Backed by a powerful orchestra under the baton of Gordon Twist, Rivera and her able backups smoothly glide through the many segments of the star’s career. The production is nicely directed and splendidly choreographed by Graciela Daniele.

“We don’t have any film on what we did,” Rivera tells her audience.

You had to be there. And for those many who weren’t, being at the center for this terrific retrospective will have to suffice.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life”

WHERE: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

WHEN: Closing performances tonight at 7:30 p.m. tonight, Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

COST: $15 to $65

CALL: (714) 556-2787, www.ocpac.org