The Chita Rivera Awards will honor Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award. Tony winner Joel Grey will present the award at the previously announced ceremony to be held on May 20 at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan.
“We are thrilled to honor Bernadette Peters with this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Joe Lanteri, founder and executive director of the New York City Dance Alliance Foundation and producer of the awards, in a statement. “Over an unbelievable career spanning over six decades, Bernadette has starred on stage and screen, performed concerts around the world, written children’s books and, as a humanitarian, has saved hundreds of animals with her charity Broadway Barks. Having Joel Grey on hand to present her award will make this a truly unforgettable evening.”
Peters has received seven Tony nominations, winning the Best Actress in a Musical trophy twice for her turns as Emma in 1985’s “Song and Dance” and Annie Oakley in the 1999 revival of “Annie Get Your Gun.” She received additional nods for the 1971 revival of “On the Town,” 1974’s “Mack and Mabel,” 1984’s “Sunday in the Park with George,” 1993’s “Goodbye Girl” and the 2003 mounting of “Gypsy.” Peters’ additional Main Stem credits include her debut in the 1959 revival of “The Most Happy Fella,” originating the role of the Witch in 1987’s “Into the Woods” and roles in revivals of “A Little Night Music,” “Follies” and “Hello, Dolly!” In 1999, Peters co-founded “Broadway Barks,” an annual animal charity and adoption event; she was presented with the Tony Awards’ 2012 Isabelle Stevenson Award for her efforts. She is next slated to appear on Broadway in the upcoming West End transfer of the Stephen Sondheim revue “Old Friends.” The Chita Rivera Awards will mark a reunion of Peters and Grey, who played siblings Josie and George M. Cohan, respectively, in 1968’s “George M!”
Nominations for the competitive Chita Rivera Awards, honoring achievement in dance and choreography, will be announced on April 26. Proceeds from the awards ceremony’s ticket sales will benefit the NYC Dance Alliance Foundation Scholarship Program. This year’s proceeds will specifically support the creation of a new Chita Rivera Training Scholarship, in honor of the three-time Tony-honored performer Chita Rivera, who passed away in January.
The Chita Rivera Awards is being produced by Lanteri in conjunction with Patricia Watt.
