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.  Continue reading →