Nowadays (from Chicago)

Chicago is all about precision. When Gwen Verdon and I did our duet Nowadays, playing Roxie and Velma, it was a case of two dancing as one. I never want to see a picture where either one of us has even a finger out of place performing it!

I liked the desperateness of Velma. She’s really an animal. She’s tough but she meets her match in Roxie who at first appears sweetly adorable. Velma is not ashamed to go as low as she needs to get as high as she wants. The song comes towards the end. These two girls, who are opposites throughout the entire show, finally come together and become one.

One of the lines goes: “In 50 years or so it’s gonna change, you know, but oh, it’s heaven nowadays.” When I sing that bit today, I have to let the audience know that I know that almost 50 years have passed since I first sang it – and that I’ve changed. I’m a different person now. It’s fun to share that with the audience.

All That Jazz (Chicago)

With Velma and Roxie, we’re talking about two killers who have the audacity to ask: “Whatever happened to fair dealing and pure ethics?” The show is still running because it’s about human beings’ capacity for survival.

All That Jazz is typical of Kander and Ebb: it has a looseness, a raucousness, a “bad girl” kind of thing about it: throwing caution to the wind. I had moved to California when I got the call from Bob Fosse and I came back to New York to do it. To stand next to Gwen in the show was quite an honour. She was delicious. Redheads have a lightness, a craziness, a kookiness. Think of Lucille Ball. Gwen was sort of like that. She was a great gal, a jokester. We had so much fun together.

A Boy Like That (West Side Story)

Somebody recently sent me some West Side Story photos that I’d never seen before. It brings it all back. I feel as though I could call up any of those people and continue where we left off. It was a wonderful, joyous time. Even Jerry Robbins is smiling in the pictures. They always accused him of being a taskmaster, which of course he was. If he hadn’t been, we never would have turned out the way we did.

In my concert this month I’ll be singing a medley of A Boy Like That and America. I’m hoping to do a version of Somewhere, too. I did it at Carnegie Hall with a gay men’s choir.

A Boy Like That is the moment when Anita finally discovers that Maria is having an affair with the boy who has killed Anita’s boyfriend and Maria’s brother. Anita is part mother and part friend to Maria but mostly mother. I played Anita on Broadway and in London. I hadn’t yet had a baby when I did the role in New York but when I did it in London I’d had my daughter, Lisa, and she was there with me at the time so I felt an even more maternal feeling.

Love and Love Alone (The Visit)

In The Visit, on Broadway in 2015, I played Claire, who was once a very good girl and is betrayed by her lover and kicked out of town by a judge. She marries several men and becomes rich while the town becomes poor. Then she returns: she’s bought up the judge, who is now her butler, and she comes back with an empty casket for her former lover.

It is so dark but when you think about it, you go: “Serves him right!” She’s looking for the truth. She offers money for the people to help her and they all give it up. They sell their souls and kill him.

This is a love story but a European one not a Disney one. This song is so haunting: “When you’re young, feeling oh so strong, what can prove you wrong? Love, and love alone.” That’s how deep her love for him was – and still is.

Where Am I Going? (Sweet Charity)

I had a glorious time playing Charity on tour around the US. Gwen Verdon had the role on Broadway. Anything that anybody else would make vulgar she could make funny and adorable and sexy. It’s different from what happens today. It’s just the nastiest time now – the way people are dancing and what they’re singing.

I feel sad when I sing this song. And lost and confused. Charity has fallen for somebody and she doesn’t know what’s going to happen. She feels completely lost and needs help. That’s why at the very end she looks up and says to the sky, “You tell me.” I can relate to it. But you don’t know the strength of the positive until you know the strength of the negative.

• Chita Rivera performs at Cadogan Hall, London, on 10 February.