Tony Awards: Chita Rivera Returns to Winter Garden Theatre, Exactly 64 Years After Opening 'West Side Story' There!

The 2020 Tony Awards ceremony was a homecoming for legendary actress Chita Rivera.

The 88-year-old actress appeared at the event to present the award for Best Musical alongside composer Andrew Lloyd Webber on Sunday (September 26) at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City.

Chita originated the role of Anita in the classic musical West Side Story and the musical actually played at the Winter Garden Theatre in the 1950s. The production’s opening night was on September 26, 1957, which means Chita just returned to the same exact location 64 years later.

The new movie version of West Side Story will be hitting theaters in December and a brand new trailer was recently released.

Even though we’re in 2021, this is actually the 2020 Tony Awards because it’s the ceremony delayed from June 2020. The awards show will honor the best of Broadway’s 2019-20 season!

Paramount+ will stream the two-hour Tony Awards ceremony starting at 7pm ET and CBS will then air a two-hour primetime special, The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back!, starting at 9pm ET. The primetime special will include performances from beloved classics and the three Best Musical nominees.