By Cris Franco

Playwright/Screenwriter Josefina López holds a singular place in both American theater and Hollywood—an artist whose voice has reshaped the narrative around Latinas on stage and screen.

In 1990, her signature play Real Women Have Curves, about an ambitious, 18-year-old, plus-sized Latina battling her family’s oppressive gender and cultural norms, became a major hit. In 2002, after a bidding war, HBO adapted the play into an award-winning film with America Ferrera in her first starring role.

So enduring is López’s semi- autobiographical tale, that for the last 23- years, both the play and film have consistently drawn large audiences, taken by López’s funny and insightful depiction of the immigrant struggle. Not resting on her laurels, more plays followed. 

López used her college loans to establish a community theater, CASA 0101, which offers multiple performing arts programs and world class theater. Lopez initially opened a nearby restaurant, CasaFina Restaurant to complement the theater experience.  Both her theater and the restaurant are located in the neighborhood that fueled her creative spirit, Boyle Heights. It was this same spirit that drove her to not give up on a career-long dream — to see her play morph yet once again, into a full Broadway musical.

Now, in a full-circle moment, López’s dream of bringing Real Women Have Curves to Broadway has finally become a reality. On April 27, 2025, the musical adaptation of her iconic play will make its long-awaited debut.

I had the privilege of speaking to Ms. López who was in NYC attending a show rehearsal. We discussed why her musical is more than just entertainment, how a “sewing factory sings”, and the importance of keeping Real Women Have Curves real.

CRIS FRANCO (CF): Josefina, I’ve streamed the many rehearsals, promos and preview clips from Real Women Have Curves, the musical — and I’m very excited!    

JOSEFINA LOPEZ (JL): Me, too! It’s got all that I loved about the play and movie but heightened with singing, dancing and an expanded story. Lisa Loomer, who adapted it, has done such a great job. 

CF: How has the original plot changed? 

JL:  We’ve added to it.  Revisiting the world allowed us to delve deeper, go back in time and bring in characters with backstories true to the times. We now meet Guatemalan (Itzel) and Salvadorian (Rosalí) refugees, a cholita (Flaca) trying to remake her life and a woman who hasn’t yet come out. These real people were part of my factory experience and now we’ve included them. It’s beautiful.

CF:  It sounds wonderful — and daunting.  Was it challenging adapting Real Women into a musical?

JL: Yes. I had tried twice before — but decided to let Lisa Loomer take-on this third attempt because when you create a successful play and movie, as I did, you get attached.  But for the project to grow, you have to be able to see beyond what already exists.  And to create new moments where it lends itself to song and dance.  I knew I had to just let go and tell myself, yeah, that moment is possible, too.  And that was the challenge. 

CF: It appears there are new male characters in the musical. 

JL: Yes. The original play featured only women and there were a few men in the film. But we added more men into the musical.  And that’s part of the challenge, too. Knowing what characters to add — without adding too many. You don’t want to overpower the narrative because Broadway often relies on spectacle and I didn’t want us to lose sight of the story.  

CF: I get it. You wanted to keep Real Women, real.

JL: Yes.  

CF: The master of musical theater, Stephen Sondheim, stated that when he was approached about musicalizing a story, he’d ask himself: “Does it sing?” Did you think Real Women would sing?  

JL: I knew it would. All the way back, when I was in the (sewing) factory, I knew that Real Women  was a musical because the factory itself was musical. The sewing machines each had a distinct, humming sound depending on how old the machine was or if it needed oil. The steam iron made a rhythmic hiss. Cutting the fabric had a percussive tick-tick-tick. The radio was always playing. Outside the cars would zoom by and you could hear all the “loncheria” trucks horns honking — da-da-da-da-daaaa!

CF: “La cucaracha, la cucaracha” — 

JL: The factory was always alive with sound and motion – moving the dresses, shaking them, sewing them, ironing them.  There was always action throughout the workroom and choreography to the assembly of the garments.  Even when I was writing the original play, I thought to myself, this story could be a musical. I imagined the women dancing with the mannequins. I had all these ideas but I was only 18-years-old and, frankly, I didn’t know how to write a musical. But I could definitely hear and see it come alive as a musical.

CF: What are your favorite musicals?

JL:  I didn’t like musicals growing up because they were not relevant to my life in Boyle Heights. It wasn’t until years later when I experienced that moment in Miss Saigon where (Vietnamese) Kim and this white (American) soldier’s souls connect through a song, that I thought, ‘Oh my God — musicals can be about anything’. They don’t have to be about two white characters falling in love in a world where everything’s rosy. Those plots were so completely relatable to me living as an undocumented girl in East L.A. So, Miss Saigon got me interested in musical theater and then I saw Next To Normal —

CF: O.M.G. That show is so daring. It’s about how a wife and mother whose mental disorder destroys and — in a way — unites a suburban family. 

JL: Next To Normal showed me that musicals can go deep and be profound. That’s when I thought, I really want my play to be a musical. At first that was just a dream, but after our film won so many awards, I started actively working with my manager seeking theater producers. And I’ve been pursuing this goal until I finally met Sergio Trujillo who won the Best Choreographer Tony in 2019.  I thought Sergio could direct it. He’s an immigrant, so he gets it and understands the pain of being undocumented.  And it slowly all came together. 

CF: There are so many elements involved in creating a musical, that a director can make or break your show.  How did you select your collaborators: Lisa Loomer and Nell Benjamin (book), Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez (score)?  

JL: Selecting the right creatives is a big decision. But when I met Barry Wessler, the producer of Chicago, I thought — well he must know what he’s doing. His show’s have been running for over 20 years! Lisa Loomer was the smartest choice because she knows my world of Boyle Heights and she knows me.  Sergio is the one who came up with Joy Huerta. I had heard some of her songs and had heard of her.   

CF: She’s a Grammy winner. 

JL: Yes. I just had never put Joy’s name and her wonderful songs together. I thought — Oh, my God, this woman’s a poet.  She is an incredible, soulful human being — amazing.  And I thought, yes, she could write the songs for the show.   

CF: I very much like the songs I’ve heard.  They’re on story, tuneful and energetic. 

JL: I agree.  Once the creatives were lined up, I guess my big contribution was insisting that our casting agent, or at least their consultant, be a Mexican-American.  So that Mexican-American actors would be the first to be considered for the roles.  

CF: That is very important because today’s discerning Latinx audience are very familiar with the cultural and linguistic nuances of a México-American vs. a Puertoriqueño vs. a Cubano, etc. Casting still lumps us together into playing a generic Hispanic that comes across as inauthentic because a generic Hispano doesn’t exist.  But what does exist in your show is a cast that can all act, sing and dance.

JL: Well, you have to be a triple threat to be on Broadway, right?

CF: Was it a challenge finding Latinx triple threats?

JL:  It was hard to find men and women of a certain age who could sing and act and dance because until shows like In The Heights — thank goodness for In The Heights — our actors had limited opportunities to develop their musical talents. But we have assembled an amazing cast. But, the biggest challenge was getting the word out in the search for our lead, Ana, because, once again, not enough Latinos get to train, especially Mexican-Americans.  But we finally found Tatianna Córdoba who can do it all.  Plus, she’s got incredible comedic timing and she’s a great singer. Tatianna graduated from Boston Conservatory of Music at Berklee in 2022.  She’s beautiful, charming and she looks 18-years-old!  

CF: But finding her took work? 

JL: We had over one-thousand submissions for the role.      

CF: Although the original Real Women was written in the 1980s, the themes are more pressing than ever: body image, femininity vs. feminism, women’s rights, the immigrant experience. What do you think that says about our present society?

JL: Those things have only gotten worse. It’s sad. When I first wrote the play, I thought that twenty-years later, the story would be irrelevant because society would have progressed beyond these racist and sexist assumptions.  But it’s only gotten worse for women and the undocumented. It’s gotten worse for everyone. Immigrants have been dehumanized. So, it’s divine timing that this play is now on Broadway so it can challenge the narrative that we are the bad guys. That we’re taking rather than contributing. I’m very proud to share my story because it’s not just mine. It’s the story of so many others. Me, our director and the whole cast feel that telling this story is now necessary.  It’s not just entertainment.  It’s us fighting for our humanity.

I was talking to a reporter earlier and I realized — hey, by opening a theater and a restaurant, I’ve created hundreds of jobs. I didn’t take anyone’s job away. Immigrants create jobs. I’ve always been very proud and public about the fact that I am a formerly undocumented person who at age18 worked in a sewing factory.  And today I get to walk to a Broadway show where I get to see myself portrayed as a worker in that sewing factory. In a way, I’m the embodiment of the American Dream.  

CF: You certainly are. And, I too, can’t understand anyone who can’t relate to the cause of the undocumented worker.  I mean, they are just like you. They are you in different circumstances. It’s disparaging to refer to them as “aliens.”

JL: Which is code for “non-human.” And for me, that term really hurts. So I wanted to explore and celebrate my humanity through the story and say, no, I’m not an alien, I’m a human being. That’s why the play’s undressing scene is so important.  It says — look at me!  I’m flesh and blood and curves and fat and everything.  How much more real can I be than this?  

And, yeah, it’s a story of defiance, of self-acceptance because that’s me, too. But it’s also a personal feminist story about how we women are made to feel that we’re not good enough by a system that makes us feel inferior. I used to blame myself thinking, I just need to work on myself.  Until I realized that every freaking woman has the same program running in her head. And I got sick of it.  That’s why I wanted to share this story, so the other women could see it and think — wait a minute. I’m going through the same bullshit. Oh my God, everyone’s going through this!

CF: Speaking as a male — yeah, it’s true. Society does allow us to be uncaring, sloppy, vulgar, aggressive, blunt and demanding.  While women are heavily judged if they display those very human traits. Society will forgive the most vile man of almost anything if he’s a good provider. Which brings me to money and the economics of Broadway. 

JL: Oh, yes.  Mounting a show here is crazy expensive. 

CF: Currently, some orchestra prime tickets to Othello starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Denzel Washington list at $900 each with the cheapest ticket at $221.  But I’ve noticed that Real Women sells some balcony seats for under $50.  

JL: I think they’re listed at $48. We’re doing our best so that our audiences can afford to see the show. I always just go to the half-price TKTS booth and get them at 50% off but that still adds up to $100 for a pair of tickets.  And that’s because it takes about twelve-million dollars to get a show on Broadway. So it requires many investors who are primarily white men — even at my backers’ auditions.  

CF: How do you think that affects what shows get produced? 

JL: Well, if this is the group that decides what musicals make it to Broadway, it eliminates many shows that don’t appeal to this very specific funding base. I know that without a hit play we wouldn’t have had the hit movie. And without the movie we wouldn’t have had a shot at becoming a musical.  

CF: It’s very significant that you are finally here. 

JL: Especially this season when, for the first time in history, we have two new Latino musicals on Broadway: Buena Vista Social Club and Real Women Have Curves. 

CF: Do you think that says something positive about Latino stories breaking into the mainstream market? 

JL: Yes, because by bringing people into our experience they can see how beautiful we are. Broadway’s not seen a world quite like Real Women Have Curves. We present my working-class neighborhood the way I saw it.  Colorful murals, life, creativity, resilience, hope. Which is contrary to what most have heard about Boyle Heights which was at one time labeled the “drive-by shooting capitol of the world.”  That’s what captures the national headlines — not that our city has a long history of activism for civil rights and social justice. 

That’s the truth, just like the musical truly depicts how much fun it was working in the factory.  The day was filled with so much laughter and juicy chisme (gossip) that I really looked forward to going to work. So, while my friends all went off to college, I went to work in a factory where I got a real education about what it meant to be a woman. 

CF: So, your journey to Broadway began way back then. And now you’re here. 

JL:  It’s incredible to walk to Times Square and to see a giant billboard for Real Women Have Curves. 

CF: (my phone’s alarm goes off) Josefina, there’s so much more I wanted to ask you but I know our time is over and you’ve gotta go back to rehearsal. I’m gonna jump to my final question: What advice do you offer to young playwrights? 

JL: To keep telling the truth. Write about what they know, and to write about the wisdom they’ve [writers] gained from their pain and suffering, because nobody needs any more tragedies. And if they haven’t yet learned from their life lessons, wait a couple of years to write your story.  We need to hear about what they’ve gained from the losses. 

To experience what Josefina López learned from her storied life, get ready to experience Real Women Have Curves:  the Musical currently in previews wiht opening night on April 27th at the James Earl Jones Theater, NY, NY.  

The full cast includes: Tatianna Córdoba, Justina Machado, Florencia Cuenca, Shelby Acosta, Carla Jimenez, Aline Mayagoitia, Jennifer Sánchez, and Sandra Valls, Mauricio Mendoza, with Ana’s boyfriend played by Mason Reeves. with the ensemble cast consisting of Zeus Mendoza, Claudia Mulet, Christopher M. Ramirez, Monica Tulia Ramirez, Quincy Hampton, Ariana Burks 

For all show info and tickets, log onto: https://www.realwomenhavecurvesbroadway.com

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I just couldn’t say farewell to Hispanic Heritage Month without giving props to a man whose name and impressive credits I’ve noted in so many Playbill Magazines: Mr. Michael Balderrama. 

Of Mexican heritage, Michael Balderrama is one of theater’s most prolific choreographers. An artist whose abundant talents can presently be seen in the mega-hit bio-musical, MJ – based on the life of the enigmatic “King of Pop”: Michael Jackson. And that’s not Balderrama’s only show-biz gig.  The busy actor/dancer also serves as the Global Choreographer for The Great White Way’s other mega-hit, Hamilton.  This assignement has him traveling the world, maintaining the high performance standards of the many companies that have kept the revolutionary Hamilton selling out in Chicago, London, Hamburg, Ireland and Australia.   

And as if working on MJ and Hamilton weren’t impressive enough, Balderrama has also performed and/or choreographed for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights (where he played the title role as Usnavi), Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp’s dance masterpiece, Movin’ Out, and was featured in three big budget film-to-stage musical adaptations: Ghost, Saturday Night Fever and Unban Cowboy.  Balderrama has a number of big shows under his belt – and rightfully so. 

Whether performing or choreographing, Balderrama is always a standout. He has received unanimous praise, including a the 2022 Drama Desk Award in Choreography, for MJ. And you don’t have to look too far to understand why Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Christopher Weeldon chose Balderrama as his assistant choreographer, to bring the long awaited MJ The Musical to the stage.  The reason: Balderrama is an inspired story teller when it comes to movement. And he’s filled Jackson’s life story with classic moves from the era along with an expanded dance vocabulary that helps the audience understand the artistically extraordinary journey “the gloved one”.

The musical’s book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Lynn Nottage, is set in 1992 during rehearsals for Jackson’s Dangerous World Tour.  The plot skillfully navigates the public relations time-bomb that’s about to upend Jackson’s non-stop skyward trajectory. The two-act extravaganza incorporates Jackson’s signature moves along with Balderrama and Wheeldon’s new movement resulting in the one of the most thrilling dance shows ever presented on an American stage. I’ve seen MJ four times and always discover something new in the nuanced, explosive choreography. When it comes to MJ, I can’t stop, can’t get enough. 

It’s serendipitous that Balderrama should be part of MJ, because it was Michael Jackson himself who hired Balderrama for his first real dance job  in his extended song “Ghost“. Of working on MJ, Balderrama says the show, “… reminds us of not only the incredible talent and the incredible gift of music that he gave the world but (also) the world he had to navigate in order to make that happen. I think the show hits the mark where it celebrates his work and reminds us of the incredible talent, his incredible creativity, his uniqueness, while at the same time it’s not just a love letter. You know, we’re speaking about a human and an artist that struggled with difficulties.”

A dedicated artist to the core, Balderrama truly understands MJ’s perfectionism as Balderrama’s dances are perfectly shaped throughout the hit-packed evening featuring “Beat It,” “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” “Dancing Machine,” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin,’” “They Don’t Care About Us,” “Billie Jean,” “Can You Feel It,” “Human Nature,” “Bad,” “The Man in the Mirror” – and volumes more. But there are two standout numbers where Balderrama helped create a pair of peak choreographic moments: “Smooth Criminal” and “Thriller.”  “Smooth Criminal” is set up by a short prologue where the character of Michael Jackson introduces us to the dancers who most influenced his style: the slick Bob Fosse, the elegant Fred Astaire and the dynamic Nicholas Brothers.  What starts out as a slow narrative explodes into the frenetic and mesmerizing “Smooth Criminal.”  That number alone is worth the price of admission.  Then, in “Thriller” (spoiler alert), plot and movement brilliantly intersect when MJ’s strict father, who both forged and terrorized the young Jackson, evolves into a literal monster haunting Michael’s memories.  This perfect melding of story into dance is the 11 o’clock number that takes us to the end of the show by allowing us to enter into Michael’s sometimes tortured, always creative soul.  “Thriller” leads us to understand both what might have driven MJ to superstardom and what may have stunted his emotional growth that led to the allegations that would haunt Jackson until his untimely demise. 

For the aforementioned and so many more reasons, I recommend MJ The Musical to the world!  You’ll hear some of the pop’s greatest tunes danced to Michael Balderrama’s glorious tribute to Michael Jackson’s immortal dance legacy. 

Check out tickets and more information: www.mjthemusical.com

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