Real Women Have Curves
Florencia Cuenca, Tatianna Córdoba and Justina Machado. (Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
By Fern Siegel (Posted 5/2/25)
Real Women Have Curves packs punch.
A colorful, heartfelt look at undocumented Mexican seamstresses in 1987 East Los Angeles, the Broadway musical gives newcomers a chance to strut their stuff. Audiences get an engaging story that turns generational dreams, family dynamics and immigration into a compelling production.
By humanizing immigrants’ stories, we see the realities that encompass their lives. Curves was written by Josefina Lopez 35 years ago, and HBO later made it into a film. But in the ensuing decades, it’s morphed into a first-rate musical at the James Earl Jones Theater.
Theater may be its perfect medium.
Curves tells two stories that dovetail. The first is Ana (a fantastic Tatianna Córdoba) winning a scholarship to Columbia University. The budding journalist is torn between her dreams and fears her family won’t survive without her. As the only American-born member, she’s expected to work in sister Estela’s (equally terrific Florencia Cuenca) dress-making business. Her mother (Justina Machado), shocked by the prospect of her daughter leaving, highlights her own sacrifices in “De Nada.”
Loving, critical and practical, Machado is wonderful at centering the familial conflict. And that dramatic tension, with its many permutations, propels the show, as does the second story line: a crazy order for 200 dresses in three weeks. A talented, but undocumented designer, Estela is at the mercy of her buyers: full order or no payment. Her workers, all with searing stories of their own, slave over sewing machines to grab this chance at success. Can they make it in time?
The adapted book by Lisa Loomer and Nell Benjamin is upbeat, often funny and always authentic. These women don’t look like Broadway leads with perfect gym bodies, which makes the title song “Real Women Have Curves” titanic. This is a portrait of women who define sweat labor, often working two jobs to make ends meet. Deportation and INS raids are daily terrors, symbolized in the freedom dreams of “If I Were a Bird.” Yet Rosalí (Jennifer Sánchez), Prima Flaca (Shelby Acosta), Pancha (Carla Jimenez), Prima Fulvia (Sandra Valls) and Itzel (Aline Mayagoitia) push on, supporting each other and making impressive Broadway debuts. Mason Reeves is nerdy sweet as Henry, Ana’s first boyfriend.
Add wonderful Latin-infused choreography from director Sergio Trujillo, a meaningful score by Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez, spot-on costumes by Wilberth Gonzalez and Paloma Young and Arnulfo Maldonado’s eye-catching projections and Curves delivers an energetic show bursting with important messages.
In a political atmosphere that demonizes immigrants, Curves is a potent reminder of decent, hardworking people facing impossible challenges. The memorable show engages us heart and soul.