Within the second act of Actual Girls Have Curves: The Musical, opening tonight on Broadway on the James Earl Jones Theatre, the ladies working in a sizzling, small, ramshackle California gown manufacturing facility momentarily break freed from inhibition and ageism and the physique disgrace over their numerous shapes and sizes and, following the lead of the defiant, soon-off-for-college Ana (Tatianna Córdoba), one after the other strip all the way down to their underwear and sing the title tune. It’s a scene that’s humorous, tender, compassionate and so well-performed by the eight girls on stage that it earned a mid-show standing ovation the evening I used to be in attendance.
The scene additionally succinctly and entertainingly presents the humor, satisfaction, tenacity and bravado of a Latino neighborhood below fixed siege and scrutiny.
Sadly, there are too few different moments in Actual Lady Have Curves that soar like that, that ship the enjoyment and delight of shaking off the numerous worries and fears that burden these eight girls 24/7. Primarily based on the same-named play and subsequent HBO film, the musical set in 1987 focuses on the eight mates and coworkers who sew attire in a small, hidden warehouse house, with all however one of many girls – younger Ana – undocumented. The Reagan period amnesty program, with its length-of-time necessities and insistence on data clear of even a driving ticket, appears to supply scant promise.
With Ana being the only real American citizen – a birthright citizen – she has lengthy taken on the burdensome function of protector for the family-owned gown manufacturing facility and for her household itself: elder sister Estela (Florencia Cuenca), mom Carmen (Justina Machado) and father Raul (Mauricio Mendoza) are all undocumented immigrants from Mexico.
The musical is pushed mainly by two plotlines: Ana’s secret scholarship to Columbia College in New York (she is aware of her mom will demand she keep on the manufacturing facility and with the household), and an enormous make-or-break 200-dress order the small manufacturing facility has acquired. The outcomes of both received’t shock anybody – this can be a musical with a contented ending the place goals come true, or no less than survive one other day.
Whereas the hardship and terror of residing in fixed concern of a knock on the door or a faucet in your shoulder is repeatedly conveyed in Actual Girls, the musical by some means flattens the expertise with triteness, cliche and lack of actual shock. Ana’s coming-of-age-follow-your-dreams story is trite and acquainted, with no actual stakes at play, and the racism and cruelty that fuels U.S. immigration coverage feels watered down right here, save for one second of blunt bigotry that appears to come back from a grittier manufacturing than this usually gentle comedy.
If the guide (Lisa Loomer with Nell Benjamin) solely often rises above earnestness, and the mariachi-meets-musical theater songs by Pleasure Huerta and Benjamin Velez are nice sufficient within the second, Actual Girls finds its true power in its solid (high-quality singers all, and well-directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo). Machado as mom Carmen (and who is thought to TV viewers for the rebooted One Day At A Time), is superb at each comedian zingers and chopping put-downs, and he or she’s even higher in dramatic moments when she lets long-simmering resentments burst open.
Cuenca, as Carmen’s eldest daughter Estela, properly conveys each the heavy load of first-child accountability – she runs the gown store, seeing to each element, together with defending her employees – and the love-resentment dichotomy she feels for youthful sister, U.S. citizen and college-bound Ana.
Córdoba, making her Broadway debut as Ana, is an amiable performer, however she doesn’t fairly but have the subtlety of movement or nuance of expression that might rework Ana into one thing greater than a personality sort – the brainy child who is aware of smarts and a break can get her far-off from a life she hates. Right here that life is a cramped sweaty manufacturing facility, however it might simply as simply be a coal mine, the prison underworld or a Kansas farm. Regardless of the place or state of affairs, the outdated life has to exert a pull on the leaver or the leaving means little. Ana is incidental to the manufacturing facility, feels unbound to it, and the one factor holding her again is her mom’s cussed need to maintain the household collectively. Columbia College? Ana’s pretty much as good as there the second she opens the letter.
Title: Actual Girls Have Curves: The Musical
Venue: Broadway’s James Earl Jones Theatre
Route & Choreography By: Sergio Trujillo
Guide: Lisa Loomer with Nell Benjamin, primarily based on the play by Josefina López and the HBO screenplay by Josefina López and George Lavoo
Music & Lyrics By: Pleasure Huerta and Benjamin Velez
Solid: Tatianna Córdoba, Justina Machado, Florencia Cuenca, Shelby Acosta, Carla Jimenez, Aline Mayagoitia, Itzel, Mauricio Mendoza, Mason Reeves, Jennifer Sánchez, Sandra Valls, and Ariana Burks, Quincy Hampton, Zeus Mendoza, Claudia Mulet, Christopher M. Ramirez, Monica Tulia Ramirez, Shadia Fairuz, Elisa Galindez, and Omar Madden.
Working time: 2 hr 15 min (together with intermission)
