Before “Real Women Have Curves” was a stage play or an award-winning film, it was just a dream that Josefina López jotted down in her journal during bathroom breaks from her job at a garment factory in Boyle Heights.
She drew inspiration from her fellow seamstresses — women at the margins of society — who still radiated joy and wisdom despite their exploitative circumstances.
“My intention was to show people the courage it takes to be a person who’s been marginalized and to still love yourself,” said López over a Zoom call.
More than two decades since the 2002 release of the film — which introduced audiences to the Emmy-winning actor America Ferrera — López’s L.A. dream is now getting its shine in New York. Directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, “Real Women Have Curves: The Musical” makes its official Broadway debut on April 27 at the James Earl Jones Theater.
This classic Eastside story centers Ana García, a headstrong teen with educational aspirations, who is often at odds with her traditional, menopausal Mexican mother, Carmen. The story touches on matters of body image and sexual autonomy within their community of immigrant women, who are often shown toiling inside a garment factory amid the sweltering summer heat of 1987.
Newcomer Tatianna Córdoba, a Bay Area native and graduate of the Boston Conservatory, plays the lead in this coming-of-age tale. Puerto Rican TV and film star Justina Machado, best known for her role in Netflix’s “One Day at a Time,” takes on the role of Carmen — 32 years after she first played Ana in the Chicago premiere of the play. Mexican actress-singer Florencia Cuenca will co-lead in the role of Estela, the eldest daughter of the García family.
The Broadway musical will round out the various iterations of this timeless story with music by Mexican singer Joy Huerta — one half of the duet Jesse y Joy — and composer Benjamin Velez.
López considers the musical’s premiere “divine timing.”
“This story is coming out exactly at this time when we need a story to change the narrative about immigrants being criminals,” said López, referring to the Trump administration’s latest attempt to mass deport immigrants to El Salvador’s notorious prisons without due process.
“It takes getting to Broadway to change culture,” López added, with a nod to the cultural impact that Jonathan Larson’s 1996 musical “Rent” had on the national conversation surrounding HIV/AIDS.
On the first day of production rehearsal, López gave an emotional speech about why she felt called to write “Real Women Have Curves” 37 years ago. Born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, López based much of the story on her own experience as an undocumented young woman.
“I knew there was something magical and special about this moment in my life,” López told the cast. “This story matters even if the whole world says you’re replaceable, you don’t matter, you’re not even human. There was a part of me that said, ‘No, I am human.’”
Like the character Ana, who leaves Boyle Heights to follow her dreams in the Big Apple, López moved to New York City at 18 years old. She attended the INTAR (International Arts Relations) Hispanic Playwrights in Residence Laboratory; led by Cuban American playwright María Irene Fornés, it was where she began formalizing her ideas into a play, also called “Real Women Have Curves.”
“I wanted to fight for my humanity and write about my humanity,” López recalled, “and about what it is to be a real human being and a woman.”
Her first stage drama would premiere in 1990 at the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, with various productions taking place across the country thereafter, including in San Diego, San Antonio, Chicago and Los Angeles. In 1998, it caught the attention of film producer George LaVoo, who later approached López about adapting it for film. Together, they co-wrote the script.
With HBO supporting the production, America Ferrera, then 17, was cast as Ana — her biggest film role yet, after appearing in Disney sports comedy “Gotta Kick It Up!” Lupe Ontiveros, who performed in stage productions of the play and in various Gregory Nava films, was cast as Carmen.
“She reminds me of my mom,” said López.
The 2002 film, directed by Patricia Cardoso, proved a hit at the Sundance Film Festival — it won the esteemed Audience Award for dramatic film. The onscreen mother-daughter pair, Ferrera and Ontiveros, jointly won the Special Jury Prize for acting.
Following the success of the film, there were a series of attempts to turn the beloved West Coast story into a musical, said López, but they fizzled out due to irreconcilable artistic differences. That was until she met Trujillo, the Tony Award-winning choreographer behind some of Broadway’s most popular productions: “Memphis,” “Jersey Boys,” “On Your Feet!” and “Ain’t Too Proud.”
Trujillo, who is originally from Cali, Colombia, was undocumented for several years in Toronto before moving to New York to pursue a career in musical theater choreography. López called the partnership “a match.”
“He’s the right director because I don’t have to explain to him the pain of being undocumented,” said López. “He understands how you suffer and feel invisible.”
The Broadway musical represents a full-circle moment for López, who once fantasized about “Real Women Have Curves” being on a marqueeduring her New York residency. She might have even manifested its destiny in one of the final scenes of the 2002 film, when Ana surfaces from the subway station and finds herself in front of the box office of a Broadway show.
The filming location was not intentional, López recalled — it was simply the closest subway station to LaVoo’s apartment— but something about that moment feels like kismet now.
“It is my story and it is my fate,” said López.
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