Broadway star Chita Rivera dead at 91: publicist

Chita Rivera -- a singer, dancer and actress who lit up Broadway stages over six decades in such shows as "West Side Story" and "Chicago" as one of the foremost entertainers of her generation -- died Tuesday, her publicist said. She was 91.

Trained in voice, piano and ballet from a young age, Rivera was dancing on Broadway before she was 20 and kept at it all the way into her early 80s.

Rivera died in New York after a "brief illness," her daughter Lisa Mordente said in a statement released by publicist Merle Frimark.