Latest news with #RealWomenHaveCurves
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Real Women Have Curves' Announces Broadway Closing
Real Women Have Curves: The Musical will play its final Broadway performance on June 29 following 31 previews and 73 regular performances. The musical opened April 27 at The James Earl Jones Theatre to mostly favorable reviews, but never really caught on at the box office during a spring that saw huge receipts for star-driven productions. For the week ending June 15, Real Women Have Curves filled only 63% of available seats, grossing just $365,252 with an average ticket price of $68.63. More from Deadline 'Oh, Mary!' Breaks House Record As Cole Escola's Starring Run Nears End; Overall Receipts Drop As Hollywood Goes Home - Broadway Box Office 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More Carrie Preston Teases Her 'Elsbeth' Guest Star Wish List: "Pretty Much Everybody On Broadway" Based on the play by Josefina López and the 2002 film adaptation starring America Ferrera, Real Women Have Curves focuses on a group of immigrants working at a small dress-making shop in East L.A. The musical mixes family drama and self-acceptance with larger social themes about immigration, with the threat of deportation ever present. 'We have been working on developing this show for the last five years and could have never predicted that when it made its way to Broadway it would be timelier than ever,' said producers Barry Weissler and Jack Noseworthy in a statement. 'Bringing this joyful immigrant story that explores the American Dream to the stage has been an honor and a responsibility that we don't take lightly, especially in today's political climate. 'We are grateful,' they continued, 'to our company and audiences who made it all possible, and especially applaud our cast's courage, vulnerability, and authenticity in telling this story each night. Though our run on Broadway is coming to an end, we are very much looking forward to the future life of Real Women Have Curves and continuing to bring this important story to new audiences.' The musical received two Tony Award nominations – Best Original Score and, for Justina Machado, Best Featured Actress in a Musical – but went home empty-handed earlier this month. The musical stars Broadway newcomer Tatianna Córdoba, Florencia Cuenca, Shelby Acosta, Carla Jimenez, Aline Mayagoitia, Mauricio Mendoza, Mason Reeves, Jennifer Sánchez and Sandra Valls. The musical was directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, with music and lyrics by Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez, and book by Lisa Loomer with Nell Benjamin. American Repertory Theater (A.R.T) at Harvard University produced the musical's world premiere in 2023. Best of Deadline 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
New York Times
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Broadway's ‘Real Women Have Curves' to Close Because of Soft Sales
'Real Women Have Curves,' an immigration-themed musical about a young woman whose academic aspirations conflict with her mother's desire for her to stay close to home and to help out at the family's small business, announced on Tuesday that it would close on June 29 after struggling to find an audience on Broadway. Based on Josefina López's 1990 play and a 2002 film, the musical began previews April 1 and opened April 27 at the James Earl Jones Theater. At the time of its closing, it will have played 31 previews and 73 regular performances. The musical is set in 1987 in an East Los Angeles dressmaking shop owned and operated by Latina women, some of whom are undocumented immigrants; it has echoes of events currently unfolding in Los Angeles, where immigration raids have prompted protests. 'Real Women Have Curves' was nominated for two Tony Awards, for best original score (by Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez) and for best featured performance by an actress (Justina Machado), but won neither. It is the second show to post a closing notice after going home empty-handed from the June 8 awards ceremony, following 'Smash.' Reviews for 'Real Women Have Curves' were mostly positive. In The New York Times, the critic Laura Collins-Hughes called it 'a bouncy, crowd-pleasing comedy about female empowerment, self-acceptance and chasing one's ambitions.' She added, 'It is also a tale of immigrant life in this country, and the dread woven into the fabric of daily existence for undocumented people and those closest to them.' 'Real Women Have Curves' has had difficulty selling tickets throughout its run. It has been grossing about $400,000 most weeks, which is well below today's running costs for a large-scale Broadway musical. The producers, in a last-ditch effort to boost ticket sales, picked up the costs for the cast to perform a song on the Tony Awards broadcast (not a given, since the show was not nominated for best musical), but that did not lead to a sufficient uptick to save the show. The musical was capitalized for up to $16.5 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That money — the amount it cost to finance the show's development — has not been recouped. 'Real Women Have Curves' features a book by Lisa Loomer with Nell Benjamin; it is directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo. Produced by Barry and Fran Weissler and Jack Noseworthy, the show had an initial production that opened in 2023 at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How ‘Real Women Have Curves' Went From 2002 Film to 2025 Tony Nominee: ‘It's Like It Should Have Always Been a Musical'
The first time Broadway director and choreographer Sergio Trujillo heard about Real Women Have Curves, he didn't pay much attention. His husband, producer Jack Noseworthy — with whom he runs Truworthy Productions, focused on finding Latino stories to empower the community through musical theater — had watched the America Ferrera-starring 2002 movie and asked him to see it, thinking it would make 'a really interesting musical.' 'Mostly because he's been growing up with my family — my mother, my sisters, all of them — and he said he saw something in it,' Trujillo, who was born in Colombia, tells Billboard Español. 'I was so absorbed with so many other projects, that I sort of saw it but I didn't pay attention.' More from Billboard 8 of the Best Latin-Themed Musicals Ever on Broadway: From 'West Side Story' to 'Buena Vista Social Club' Chiquis Writes Her First Children's Book & More Uplifting Moments in Latin Music Tommy Richman Claps Back at Streamer Asking Him to Sing: 'What Am I? A Dancing Monkey?' One night, he decided to give it another shot, learning that it was originally a play by Josefina López – which he read immediately. 'I was like, 'Oh, my God, this is a musical! Mostly because the characters were bigger than life. The language was so buoyant, it was like music. The story was beautiful,' he recalls joyfully. 'And there is a phrase that [the protagonist] Ana says in the play — 'Women are most powerful when they work together' — that resonated with me deeply, more than anything else.' Set in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles in 1987, Real Women Have Curves follows Ana García, a cutely chubby, uber-smart daughter of immigrant parents who struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her mother for her to get married, have children and oversee the small, rundown family-owned textile factory. The show deals with gender politics and the Latina immigrant experience, with immigration agents messing with their husbands, judgment from other characters, and dreams that for many undocumented seem simply impossible to achieve. Trujillo, both as an immigrant and as one of the few men in his family, felt a profound connection. 'I thought, 'What a great way to,' first of all, in the mission to empower our community, 'to empower women, but also celebrate all of my mother and my sister and my aunts, all of the women that have made so many sacrifices so that I could have the life that I have.'' And that is what he did. After formally opening on April 27 at the James Earl Jones Theatre, Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is now nominated for two Tony Awards at Sunday's show: best original score, by Latin music star Joy Huerta (half of the Mexican pop duo Jesse & Joy) and Benjamin Velez, and best performance by an actress in a featured role for Justina Machado — who in a full-circle moment plays Carmen García, the mother of Ana, more than 30 years after playing Ana herself at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. The fact that both Huerta and Machado received nominations this year is remarkable. The former is a Grammy-winning singer who had never done theater before. The latter — whom Trujillo worked with more than two decades ago and was completely convinced she was his Carmen — was initially reluctant to accept the role because she couldn't see herself in it. 'When I did the play when I was 20 years old, it was just a different kind of role. And when I saw the movie, you know, with the wonderful, iconic Lupe Ontiveros [as Carmen], I just didn't think that was something that I would want to do or that I would fit with,' Machado explains to Billboard. 'I had to be talked into coming and doing a 29-hour reading — one of the first things you do when you're developing a new musical or a new play.' So the actress, known for TV series like Six Feet Under and One Day at a Time — and whose only previous Broadway credit was as a replacement for In The Heights' Daniela for a couple of months in 2009 — flew from Los Angeles to New York. Once there, she not only found a less serious, less judgmental Carmen, but also a set of inspiring songs — from the soaring coming-of-age tune 'Flying Away' to the humorous 'Adiós Andes,' sort of a funny ode to menopause which she performs brilliantly during the show. (You can listen to the full album of Real Women Have Curves: The Musical here.) 'Really, what made me fall in love with the role was the music,' Machado admits. 'I was like, 'Oh my God, I love this music.' But I had to be convinced that I was the person to play this role.' And as much as she loved the music, the music creators loved her. Huerta, who was recruited early on as a songwriter and was there during that first reading of the show, recalls how the actress made her feel. 'Justina was the first person I remember saying, 'This is a non-negotiable for me,'' she tells Billboard. 'I had never felt – I mean, I had felt it with music, but seeing a person perform that really made me forget about the world? I was like, 'Please, please make sure to get her. … What do you have to do to make this happen?'' 'Sergio really was the one, he really kept on,' Machado says of what convinced her. 'They were very persistent, and I'm so very happy that they were. … I never thought that I would be revisiting this play again in another form, and it really works as a musical. It's almost like it should have always been a musical. It's just so beautiful.' Although it did not receive a Tony nomination for best musical or best actress, despite widespread acclaim for the show and for Tatianna Córdoba, who plays Ana in her Broadway debut, the cast of Real Women Have Curves will be performing at the awards ceremony on Sunday night. Trujillo hopes the effort he's put into representing Latinos on Broadway doesn't go unnoticed by his target audience. 'I'm on this mission to empower our community, to try to create content and stories in which they can see themselves,' he says. 'But I need them to come to the theater. I need Latinos to do their part and support us.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bryan Cranston, Katie Holmes among Tony Awards presenters
June 3 (UPI) -- Bryan Cranston and Katie Holmes are part of the star-studded lineup of Tony Award presenters. The 78th annual Tony Awards will also see awards presented by Aaron Tveit, Adam Lambert, Alex Winter, Allison Janney, Ariana DeBose, Ben Stiller, Carrie Preston, Charli D'Amelio, Danielle Brooks, Jean Smart, Jesse Eisenberg, Keanu Reeves, Kelli O'Hara, Kristin Chenoweth, Michelle Williams, Oprah, Rachel Bay Jones, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Samuel L. Jackson, Sara Bareilles and Sarah Paulson. Cynthia Erivo will host the Tonys, while Brian Stokes Mitchell will serve as the announcer, a press release states. This year's ceremony will also feature performances by cast members of such shows as Death Becomes Her, Real Women Have Curves, Buena Vista Social Club, Dead Outlaw, Floyd Collins, Gypsy, Maybe Happy Ending, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, Pirates! The Penzance Musical, Sunset Blvd., Hamilton and Justin in Time. The awards show airs Sunday at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS.
UPI
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
Bryan Cranston, Katie Holmes among Tony Awards presenters
June 3 (UPI) -- Bryan Cranston and Katie Holmes are part of the star-studded lineup of Tony Award presenters. The 78th annual Tony Awards will also see awards presented by Aaron Tveit, Adam Lambert, Alex Winter, Allison Janney, Ariana DeBose, Ben Stiller, Carrie Preston, Charli D'Amelio, Danielle Brooks, Jean Smart, Jesse Eisenberg, Keanu Reeves, Kelli O'Hara, Kristin Chenoweth, Michelle Williams, Oprah, Rachel Bay Jones, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Samuel L. Jackson, Sara Bareilles and Sarah Paulson. Cynthia Erivo will host the Tonys, while Brian Stokes Mitchell will serve as the announcer, a press release states. This year's ceremony will also feature performances by cast members of such shows as Death Becomes Her, Real Women Have Curves, Buena Vista Social Club, Dead Outlaw, Floyd Collins, Gypsy, Maybe Happy Ending, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, Pirates! The Penzance Musical, Sunset Blvd., Hamilton and Justin in Time. The awards show airs Sunday at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS.
