The stars of the film 'Real Women Have Curves,' Lupe Ontiveros and America Ferrera, smiling during a ... [+]
An award-winning film about life in the barrio might soon be breaking barriers on Broadway.
Barry and Fran Weissler, the producers of Chicago and Waitress, are now developing a musical adaptation of the acclaimed independent film Real Women Have Curves. Sergio Trujillo, who became the first Hispanic recipient of the Tony Award for Best Choreography for his work on Ain’t Too Proud, has been tapped to direct the show.
“When I won my Tony Award in 2019,” Trujillo recalled in recent interview, “I made a personal contract with myself that I was going to be on the frontlines to ensure that stories about the Latino culture are being told.” “I [was] given a megaphone,” he said, and the opportunity to create a musical based on the movie piqued his interest.
Based on a 1987 play with the same name, the 2002 film tells the story of a full-figured Mexican-American teenager struggling to choose between living her own life and living the life that her immigrant parents want her to live. Touching on topics like immigration, body positivity, and feminism, Real Women Have Curves has been described as “one of the most influential movies of the 2000’s.” It won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.
“What Real Women Have Curves does is reminds me of all the Latin women in my life ... who fought and worked so hard in their lives for me to be able to get to do these things,” he stated. Women like his mother, who came from Colombia and worked as a seamstress in a factory like the mother in the film, “made the sacrifices, so that I can have the life that I’ve had,” he continued.
The Weisslers, who recently cast three Latin performers in the lead roles of their Broadway production of Chicago, have looped in the Grammy Award-winning Mexican pop group Jesse & Joy to create the music and lyrics. “They're not from the theater world, and that’s what I wanted,” Trujillo explained. “We wanted to create a sound that was that very authentic, but yet had a fresh perspective,” he said.
“They're storytellers, and their music is just so incredibly tuneful and beautiful,” Trujillo remarked.
Lisa Loomer, who previously penned several plays about the Latine immigrant experience and body image issues, has signed on to write the script. She also wrote the screenplay for the star-studded film Girl, Interrupted, which producers Barbara Broccoli and Fred Zollo have been trying to turn into a Broadway musical with songs from Aimee Mann.
While the producers of Real Women Have Curves have not yet announced a timetable for the show, if it makes it to the Great White Way, then it would likely be the first Broadway musical with a Latine director, bookwriter, lyricist, and composer.
