‘Chita Rivera’ to head to Old Globe

“Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life” will play the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, with previews beginning Sept. 10, in the show’s tryout before a Broadway opening in December.

The production had been booked as the summer attraction at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, but the New York producers were unable to raise the $3 million needed to put on the show.

The lead producer, Martin Bell, said he had raised about $2 million for the later Old Globe production, which was enough because of the smaller theater’s less expensive union contracts, a deal to use the Old Globe scenery shop and the Old Globe’s share of the show’s financing.

Bell co-produced “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” which began at the Old Globe and moved to Broadway with the Old Globe’s artistic director Jack O’Brien directing. O’Brien offered to help as soon as the Ahmanson deal collapsed, Bell said.

-- Don Shirley