NEW YORK – Chita Rivera had wanted to celebrate her 80th birthday quietly, no fuss. That clearly wasn’t going to happen.

“I think I can ask anybody out on the street, ‘How old is Chita Rivera?’ and they’d know. There’s an awful lot of noise about it,” said the actress. “That’s not the way I intended it to be.”

So, true to form for the multitalented, always hardworking Tony Award winner, Rivera will celebrate by giving back: She’s preparing a one-night-only Broadway concert to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

The Oct. 7 show at the August Wilson Theatre will feature Rivera backed by a full orchestra singing songs from her hits and telling stories.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, one of the nation’s leading nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations, initially considered honoring Rivera by putting on a show in her honor. She balked, intent on “giving some sweat” herself.

The actress, who turned 80 in January, doesn’t take herself too seriously. The show is called “Chita: A Legendary Celebration,” but Rivera jokes: “I’m getting closer and closer to a fairy tale.”

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Rivera, who was onstage this year in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” originated some of theater’s most memorable roles, including Anita in 1957’s “West Side Story,” Rose in 1960’s “Bye Bye Birdie,” Velma in 1975’s “Chicago” and the title role in 1993’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” the second of her two Tony Award wins.

Biopic to focus on slain rapper Tupac Shakur

LOS ANGELES – A new biopic on slain rapper Tupac Shakur is coming.

Morgan Creek Productions and Emmett/Furla Films announced in a Thursday news release they are in final negotiations to partner on the production of “Tupac.” The picture will begin filming next year in Atlanta.

Gunned down in 1996 in Las Vegas, Shakur’s murder has not been solved. He remains a towering figure in rap music, the subject of Elvis-like conspiracy theories and one of two slain symbols, with Biggie Smalls,that ruled rap for a time in the 1990s.


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