‘Real Women Have Curves’ is surprise of season

‘REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES’: Florencia Cuenca & cast. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES: THE MUSICAL
Music & lyrics by Joy Huerta & Benjamin Velez
Book by Lisa Loomer & Nell Benjamin
Based on the play by Josefina Lopez
and HBO’s Real Women Have Curves,
screenplay by Josefina Lopez & George LaVoo
Directed & choreographed by Sergio Trujillo
James Earl Jones Theatre
138 West 48^th Street
https://www.realwomenhavecurvesbroadway.com/

By Scott Harrah

Musical stage adaptations of films and plays can be tricky indeed. On paper, a musical adaptation of Real Women Have Curves—the 1990 play by Josefina Lopez about an 18-year-old Mexican American woman in Los Angeles and her immigrant family’s struggles that was adapted into a hit 2002 HBO film starring America Ferrera—might have seemed like a hard sell. However, the finished product is sensational and one of the spring 2025 Broadway season’s most delightful surprises.

Tony nominations

The Broadway musical received two 2025 Tony Award nominations: Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical (Justina Machado) and Best Original Score (Music and Lyrics) for Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez. Some might argue, including this reviewer, that the show deserved even more Tony nominations because it is such a beautiful and poignant musical on many levels.

From play & film to musical

When the film came out 23 years ago, it turned then-unknown America Ferrera into a star. She went on to play opposite co-star Vanessa Williams in the hit ABC TV comedy “Ugly Betty” for four seasons. The film was primarily known as a vehicle for female empowerment for plus-sized women. In 2025, however, the story of undocumented Mexican and Latina immigrants working in a women’s dress factory mirrors the current struggles of hard-working migrants in fear of being deported.

Tatianna Córdoba stars as Ana, an 18-year-old living in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles in 1987. Her family is from Mexico, but Ana is the only one who is a U.S. citizen. She has recently graduated from high school and wants to become a journalist. She obtains a full-ride scholarship to prestigious Columbia University in New York, but her mother, Carmen (Ms. Machado) wants Ana to stay in L.A. and help out with the garment-making business because the family is struggling. Carmen expects Ana to assume a traditional woman’s role and also follow in the footsteps of her older sister, Estela (Florencia Cuenca).

The family is working hard to meet a deadline for an order of 200 dresses. Each dress must be handmade, in a factory room without air-conditioning. Everyone in the factory is undocumented, but in the Reagan era, a law granted amnesty to non-citizens who had been in the USA since 1982. Although this law existed, many immigrants still felt unsafe because employers who knowingly hired “illegal” foreign nationals faced large fines and possible imprisonment.

Family decisions & the plight of Latina women

Ana faces a dilemma that is common when one is part of any family business: She’s independent, has her own dreams and wants her own life and career. In addition, she is grappling with the cultural expectations of her family as well as body-image issues. She wants to spend the summer working as an intern at a local newspaper instead of working in the factory, and this does not please her mother. What’s more, Ana meets a nice guy, Henry (Mason Reeves),  at the newspaper and starts dating him.

Real Women Have Curves is both the story of an immigrant family and also the collected stories of Latina women. All of the women are just trying to make an honest living in bleak conditions, in a city and country that is not exactly kind to them.

Itzel (Aline Mayagoitia) has one of the most moving stories. She is a refugee from Guatemala working in the factory with the others. When Itzel is arrested by immigration police, the other women fear they will be next.  Itzel and Ana have one of the show’s most powerful duets, “If I Were a Bird.”

Show-stopping ‘Curves’

Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez’s musical score is high-spirited and uplifting, with many great songs. The muscal’s showstopper is Act Two’s “Curves,” a song that follows a scene in which Ana and the factory women strip down to their undergarments in the stifling heat and sing about rejecting the social limitations placed on them. It’s a feel-good moment that has the audience cheering and erupting into thunderous applause.

Trujillo’s triumph

Director and choreographer Sergio Trujillo has worked on many great shows in recent years, but Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is one of his best. He has directed the cast skillfully, and the performances all coalesce well.

A solid cast

The show’s standouts include Ms. Córdoba (making her Broadway debut) as Ana. Ms. Córdoba brings all the grit, charm and determination needed for such a complicated character. The magnificent Justina Machado is a complete natural as Carmen, the traditional, no-nonsense mother of Ana and Estela. Her scenes with her family and also in the factory are all exquisitely performed.

The supporting cast members are all adept and each give their character a true-to-life quality that is often inspiring. Aline Mayagoitia’s portrayal of young Itzel is especially heartwarming. There’s just so much to enjoy in Real Women Have Curves: The Musical, from the clever dialogue to the down-to-earth production numbers and the overall message of hope when faced with the harsh realities of pursuing the American dream.

Published May 9, 2025
Reviewed at press performance on April 30, 2025

‘REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES’: (left to right) Florencia Cuenca, Tatianna Córdoba & Justina Machado. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES’: Justina Machado. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES’: Mason Reeves & Tatianna Córdoba. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES’: Tatianna Córdoba & Aline Mayagoitia. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES’: Mauricio Mendoza & Justina Machado. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES’: The cast. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES’: Tatianna Córdoba & cast. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.