The company in the A.R.T. world premiere of Real Women Have Curves: The Musical. Credit: Nile Hawver/Maggie Hall.
Presented by American Repertory Theater
Music & Lyrics by Joy Huerta & Benjamin Velez
Book by Lisa Loomer
Additional Material by Nell Benjamin
Based on the Play by Josefina López
And HBO’s Real Women Have Curves, Screenplay by Josefina López & George LaVoo
Music Supervision by Nadia DiGiallonardo
Directed & Choreographed by Sergio Trujillo
Dialect Coaching by Elisa Gonzales
Intimacy Coordination by Lauren Kiele DeLeon
Dramaturgy by Brisa Areli Muñoz
Dec. 6, 2023 – Jan. 21, 2024
Loeb Drama Center
64 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA
The online Playbill
ART’s content warning from its website: “This production stages and discusses xenophobic commentary, racism, sexual themes, and body shaming and contains haze and fog. Recommended for sixth grade and up.”
Runtime: 2 hours and 40 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission
Review by Kitty Drexel
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The New England Theatre Geeks believe that real women identify as women. The discussion about how “woman” is defined has come a long way since 1990. It still has further to go. #TransWomenAreWomen
Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is playing at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge through January 21. It is based on the 1990 play and 2002 movie of the same name by Josefina López.
It is important to note that Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is not about the important discussion surrounding LGBTQIA identity. It is a musical based on a movie based on a play about a young Latina woman from L.A. That’s the story.
There is other theatre that carefully, strategically, and emphatically discusses this issue from the perspective of intersectional feminists. Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is already doing a lot of heavy lifting. Please do not demand more from it than it plans to give.
In 2002, the HBO movie, Real Women Have Curves rocked pop culture. It starred a teenage America Ferrara and discussed gender politics and fatphobia by daring to say women could be any size or shape and be worthy of respect. Women larger than a size 6 finally saw themselves on TV as strong, adventurous heroines of their own stories. TV and movies had only cast sample-sized actresses and models to do so before. Real Women Have Curves was a direct response to the heroin chic models of the late 90s. The Body Positivity Movement was in its nascent phase.
Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is about Ana (Lucy Godinez), a young Latina woman who has just graduated from high school! She dreams of studying journalism at university, finding love in a boy named Henry (an adorkable Mason Reeves), and changing the world.
It is the summer of 1987 and Ana is ready to spread her wings. She has an internship with the local paper… But her family needs her to work in her sister’s garment factory so Ana’s sister Estela (the mighty Florencia Cuenca) can keep her business and pay her workers.
Her mother, Carmen (Justina Machado – who positively dominated the stage as a stubborn but deeply loving mother.), and father, Raul (a stalwart Edward Padilla) want what is best for Ana, but they argue about what that means. Ana is the child of undocumented immigrants and is the one person her family trusts to keep La Migra, immigration services, away.
As Ana grows into a capable, energized woman, she realizes that there are secret depths to the family she loves. Real Women Have Curves: The Musical takes on the layered challenges women and girls face as they enter adulthood. The world is unkind to young women. Ana must decide how to navigate its curves and bumps on her own terms.
The production opens with a mariachi band! The warmth of the music led by conductor Roberto Sinha and the strident voices of its players (doubled roles in the cast) welcomed the audience into a different time and place. It readied us for strong emotions, big laughs, wailing cries, and elated dancing. It is impossible to dislike a musical with a mariachi band!
Lucy Godinez is perfect as Ana. She reimagines a role that was so well-defined by America Ferrara and makes it her own. She sings the musical’s breakaway hit “Flying Away” with teen angst and adult severity. (I hope the cast recording comes out sooner rather than later. This song will be perfect to belt in the car or shower.)
Sandra Valls (Prima Fulvia), Carla Jimenez (Pancha), Shelby Acosta (Prima
Flaca), Jennifer Sánchez (Rosalí), and Florencia Cuenca (Estela) in the A.R.T.
world premiere of Real Women Have Curves: The Musical. Credit: Nile
Hawver/Maggie Hall.
Theatre practitioners: note that Godinez acts through the applause. Her acting doesn’t pause just because the show does. Godinez takes just enough time to be in the moment, appreciates her audience, and gets right back to her work.
Godinez carries tension in her neck and shoulders. It looks like tech neck (my high school drama teacher called it turtling, like a turtle’s neck reaching forward out of its shell).
The female ensemble is the backbone of Real Women Have Curves. Whether singing, dancing, or storytelling, they are the glue that holds the story together. All of the musical’s best moments come from their work with each other.
The projection design by Hana S. Kim is art. Realizing that the projections weren’t paintings that weren’t switched out between scenes caused us cognitive dissonance.
Wilberth Gonzalez and Paloma Young’s costume designs, more than other design choices, plopped us into the late 1980s: neon colors, superfluous belts, jean skirts, gigantic underpants. The taffeta red coat with tear-away tail worn by Mrs. Wright (Yvette González-Nacer) during dance number “Be A Gringa” is a revelation a la Lady Gaga circa 2009. It swished; it twirled; it told us that Mrs. Wright was glamorous and ready to kick ass.
Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is updated from the play and movie. The musical flashes out its messages about necessary immigration reform. It turns the sweltering factory scene into a song and dance about facing life’s challenges. The play and movie made different choices to tell Ana’s story because of the limitations of their mediums. The musical is able to combine both to tell a similar, more comprehensive story.
It has a little something for everyone: a song about menopause, Spanish language, cafecitos, political references (no person is illegal), queer coding, a brief makeover scene, and an awkward teenage, heterosexual romance. It is delightful.
P.S. Some of the stall doors in the A.R.T. bathroom without urinals don’t lock. If you really want to support diversity across the gender spectrum, those doors MUST lock.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly named the projection designer. The projection designs are by Hana S Kim.
