Real Woman Have Curves

"Real Woman Have Curves" at The James Earl Jones Theatre has lots and lots of thrills. Set in Boule Heights, East Los Angeles; factory workers seam dresses sometimes twelve hours a day to support their families. Even though you would classify this company as a sweet shop, the ladies get on famously. In the first act this musical can do no wrong... the dancing, singing, choreography flows, and so do the jokes!

"Curves" at first reminded me of "In The Heights". The music and song were upbeat and uplifting. We never once get a feeling of struggle. The ladies seem happy to come into work everyday and the banter between them was raucous. Under the direction and choreography by Sergio Trujillo, the musical is almost "sit comish", and yet pleasant to watch. The story by Lisa Loomer and Nell Benjamin blends what all musicals should be: a story, good songs, good singing and good dancing. The story later on has its problems (we will get into that).

The music and lyrics by Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez have the first act fly by with songs like: "Make It Work", "De Nada", and "Already Know You". It's boy meets girl, (Ana, Mauricio Mendoza; Henry, Zeus Mendoza). Ana is headed to Columbia University and Henry to Wesley University. Both characters are shy and socially awkward. They share a common interest in journalism and both will be majoring in the subject come the fall.

While the second act has even better songs and more laughs, the show teeters on the political to much. Most of the characters are in the country illegally and the fear on the INS raiding the business is ever present. Set in the Reagan years, the writing goes off kilter. Immigration was not a huge issue under the Reagan Administration. In fact, the US had more deportations under Clinton and Obama then Reagan.

The book should have stayed on the same course as the first act. In the first act the immigration issue was lite and not the crux of the show. Focusing on the music and song, "Real Woman" was a success; the audience was into the vibe of the show, the Latin style music, dance and jokes. By making it so political after the intermission, the show lost a lot of the audience. It made too many people take sides on the issue of illegal immigration; something that we go to the theater to escape from.

The show at all times had great costumes (Wilberth Gonzalez and Paloma Young). The sets by Arnulfo Maldonado and Lighting design by Natasha Katz were first rate. Katz hit the stage, for the most part with industrial lighting, she also mixed glam lighting to illuminate the scenes and back-beating the mood of the musical at all times. John Shivers on sound and Hana S. Kim,s video design too added to the depth of the show. Shivers delivered on the little things and the big things that enhanced the believability here.

"Real Woman Have Curves" delivers in a big way. Everything about it makes it a big Broadway show- right up there with all the better shows on "The Great White Way". The only problem, and it is a big one is the political aspect in the second act. Instead of towing the plot line, the writers bring in hateful speech, speech that was not warranted and even not believable. We get that immigrants have to work harder, that has been a fact since legal immigrants have been coming to the US. Yes, immigrants tend to get exploited, it happened to Italians, Germans, Jews and the Scots to name a few. Here, the writers make a case for illegals and in a sense, they lose the point of illegal.

Broadway Bob, Tony Awards, Drama Desk awards, New York City, Dead Outlaw.