REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES REDEFINES BROADWAY
BY EBBY MAGAZINE
Latina voices take center stage in this fearless new musical that redefines Broadway beauty. Real Women Have Curves is a joyful, unflinching celebration of sisterhood, self-love, and the power of speaking your truth in a world that too often demands silence.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIETA CERVANTES
“A MOVEMENT SEWN WITH COURAGE, STITCHED WITH LEGACY, AND TAILORED TO TRUTH. IT HONORS STORIES OF STRENGTH AND SPIRIT IN FULL COLOR AND FULL VOICE. THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WHEN WOMEN RISE TOGETHER.”
There is a moment early in Real Women Have Curves: The Musical that catches the breath in your throat. A group of garment workers, mothers, immigrants, and fighters freeze in a cramped L.A. factory as a raid erupts next door. The air is thick. Then, a sound: not music, not movement, but breath, brittle and real. And then, the softest weeping.
It is a small moment. But it is everything.
Real Women Have Curves is not your typical Broadway debut. It is something rarer and necessary, a story rooted in truth, stitched together with joy, tension, and fierce, everyday love. Set in 1987 in East Los Angeles, It is a coming-of-age story that carries the weight of a generational immigrant struggle yet still manages to soar. It is the rare show that dares to be beautiful and challenging in equal measure, celebratory without shying away from what is real.
At the center is Ana García (a luminous Tatianna Córdoba), an 18-year-old Mexican American girl with big dreams, a sharp mind, and a body the world does not know how to celebrate. She is the youngest, born in the United States, already being pulled in every direction, toward her future as a journalist, toward Columbia University on the other side of the country, and back home to the dress factory where her undocumented mother and financially struggling sister are just trying to stay afloat.
It is in that sweatshop, cramped, noisy, bursting with color and rhythm, where the magic happens. Not just theatrical magic, though there is plenty of that. But the kind of magic that happens when women make space for one another when they tell the truth about their bodies, when they call out injustice and still manage to laugh when they work with tired hands and daring hearts. That is the heartbeat of this musical, a chorus of women stitched together by survival, daring to sing. Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Sergio Trujillo, with music and lyrics by Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez, and a book by Lisa Loomer and Nell Benjamin, Real Women Have Curves does not flatten its characters into archetypes. Instead, it allows them to be complex, funny, contradictory, and real. Justina Machado, as Carmen, Ana’s mother, is electric, proud, infuriating, vulnerable, and ironclad. Her love is not soft. It is sewn tight with fear of losing her daughter, of being left behind, of not being enough in a country that refuses to see her. But Carmen does not know that her daughter is not running from her. She is running toward herself.
FLORENCIA CUENCA AND COMPANY
What makes this musical revolutionary is the way it centers Latina women not as background but as the whole story. It allows them to be flawed and fabulous, political and tender, sexy and scared, all in the same breath. It understands representation not as a passing trend but as something deeper, a kind of restoration. When these women strip down to their underwear and move unapologetically in their skin, what could feel campy instead becomes something transcendent. They are doing more than taking up space. They show us what we overlooked, ask us to honor what was hidden, and remind us to love what has been dismissed.
At a time when immigration debates rage, when body politics still shape who gets to be seen as beautiful, and when Latina stories are too often sidelined, Real Women Have Curves offers something rare and necessary. It doesn’t just speak. It answers with joy, truth, and power. It is not perfect, and it does not need to be. It just needs to be real.
And on one unforgettable night, that message that real women deserve to be seen, heard, and celebrated echoed far beyond the stage. On April 22, the James Earl Jones Theatre became a sanctuary of Latina excellence as cultural icons like Gloria Estefan, Eva Longoria, Sofía Vergara, Roselyn Sánchez, and more gathered in radiant solidarity to support Real Women Have Curves. After a thunderous curtain call, Gloria Estefan and Grammy-winning composer Joy Huerta took the stage for a post-show conversation led by MSNBC’s Alicia Menendez. But what followed wasn’t just a talkback; it felt like a masterclass in legacy, storytelling, and music’s deep, transformative power. Together, these powerhouse women spoke about shifting the center of gravity on Broadway, lifting Latina voices, and why, now more than ever, stories about real women must be told. These women aren’t here to be rescued or romanticized. They’re here to be heard. They remind us that the American dream isn’t a fixed destination but something we shape daily with our choices, courage, and the curves we carry with pride.
“THIS MUSICAL ISN’T JUST A PERFORMANCE. IT’S A MIRROR HELD UP TO WOMEN WHO’VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE, WAITING TO BE SEEN.”
FLORENCIA CUENCA, TATIANNA CÓRDOBA & JUSTINA MACHADO
To stay up to date on news about Real Women Have Curves: The Musical, fans can visit Real Women Have Curves on Broadway and follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at @RWHCMusical.
