Bernadette Peters to Be Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Chita Rivera Awards

Multi-Award winning actress Bernadette Peters will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Chita Rivera Awards, it was announced by Joe Lanteri, Founder and Executive Director of the New York City Dance Alliance Foundation, Inc. Lanteri produces the awards in conjunction with Patricia Watt.

It was also announced that Tony, Oscar, and Golden Globe Award Winner Joel Grey will present Bernadette with her Award.

The 2024 Chita Rivera Awards will take place on Monday, May 20 at 7:30pm at The Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (566 LaGuardia Place). Tickets to the Chita Rivera Awards are available at www.ChitaRiveraAwards.com.

We are thrilled to honor Bernadette Peters with this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Joe Lanteri. “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.”

Carrying the name of one of the great dance icons of the American musical theater, the Chita Rivera Awards celebrate dance and choreographic excellence - past, present and future. The awards honor the superb achievement of each nominee, while recognizing the talents and passion of every theatrical choreographer and dancer. Additionally, through education and scholarships, the awards are committed to nurturing future generations, as well as preserving notable dance history.

Nominators will consider outstanding choreography, featured dancers and ensembles in productions on Broadway and off-Broadway as well as outstanding choreography in film, that opened in the 2023-2024 season. Nominations will be determined by the designated nominating committees. There are separate nominating committees for Broadway and Film. There is also an awarding committee for Broadway, which determines recipients that are received from the Broadway nominations committee.

The off-Broadway honors won't have competitive categories with nominees. Any special recognitions will be determined by the Awarding committee.

About Bernadette Peters

Throughout her illustrious career, Bernadette Peters has dazzled audiences and critics with her performances on stage, film and television, in concert, and on recordings. She has garnered numerous accolades including three Tony Awards, a Golden Globe, four Emmy and four Grammy Award nominations and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Best known for her work on stage and one of Broadway’s most critically acclaimed performers, Bernadette just concluded a highly successful West End debut in the Cameron Mackintosh production of Old Friends, celebrating the life and work of Stephen Sondheim. It was recently announced the production will transfer to Broadway for the 2025 season. Bernadette has starred as Dolly Gallagher Levi in the hit musical, Hello, Dolly!. She also starred in City Center’s Encores! Production, A Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair featuring the music of Stephen Sondheim and orchestrations by Wynton Marsalis. Prior to that, she starred on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music and Follies. 

Peters garnered both the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for her performance in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Song and Dance. She also won a Tony Award for her performance in Annie Get Your Gun. She received Tony nominations for her outstanding performances in Sam Mendes’ critically acclaimed revival of Gypsy, in Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl, Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park with George, the Jerry Herman/Gower Champion ode to the movies, Mack and Mabel, and the Leonard Bernstein/Comden and Green musical On The Town. 

Photo Credit: Bruce Gilkas