Real Women Have Curves Lyrics – All Songs from the Musical

"Real Women Have Curves: The Musical" – The Musical Guide & Song Meanings

Review

Most new musicals beg you to like them. “Real Women Have Curves” dares you to keep up. It is a workplace musical where the workplace is a family business and the family business is a pressure cooker. The lyric writing is not trying to sound “poetic.” It is trying to sound like women thinking out loud while they sew, flirt, argue, worry, and keep the lights on.

The show’s thesis is pragmatic: self-love is not a slogan, it is a tactic. In a garment factory in Boyle Heights, bodies are both labor and target, measured by customers, men, mothers, and capitalism. Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez write lyrics that switch languages the way the characters switch gears. Spanish arrives when feeling gets private or culturally specific. English tends to show up when the world outside the factory demands legibility. That push-pull is the score’s real motif. Not one melody. A constant translation problem.

Does it succeed? Mostly. The book can steer toward familiar beats, and some plot turns land with the inevitability of a calendar reminder. But when the songs hit, they hit because they do something useful: they change the room. “Make It Work” turns an order of 200 dresses into an anthem about collective survival. “Oye Muchacha” makes a mother-daughter fight feel like a public hearing. And the title number, the undergarments showstopper, is not there to be cute. It is a radical reframe: the women claim their bodies as their own, while still stuck inside a system that profits from them.

Musically, the sound sits at the intersection of Latin pop, musical-theatre belt craft, and ensemble-driven comedy. Sergio Trujillo’s staging keeps the choreography grounded in tasks: folding, cutting, hauling, sweating. The movement reads as labor first, dance second. That choice is why the lyrics land as lived-in. Nothing floats. Everything costs effort.

How it was made

The musical’s “2023” story is an actual premiere story. The show debuted at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge in December 2023, directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, and ran through January 2024. The creative roster reads like a modern Broadway build: music supervision by Nadia DiGiallonardo, orchestrations by Bill Sherman and Cian McCarthy, and a design team built to make a factory feel both cramped and communal.

The adaptation stack matters. Josefina López wrote the original play, which later became the 2002 film. The musical is based on both, with a book by Lisa Loomer with Nell Benjamin. That is why the show often feels like it has two brains: one that wants kitchen-sink realism, and one that wants punchy musical architecture. When those brains agree, the lyric writing gets sharp. When they disagree, you can feel the score tugging the story forward like a coworker yanking you back to the sewing machine.

There is also a personal engine under the hood. Trujillo has talked publicly about the project as a tribute to his mother and to seamstresses whose work is too often invisible. That shows up in the lyrics: the songs keep naming the work. Not “dreams” in the abstract. Tasks, deadlines, and the reality of making something beautiful while getting underpaid for it.

Key tracks & scenes

"Make It Work" (Estela, Factory Ladies)

The Scene:

Act I opener inside the garment factory. Fluorescent glare, fabric piles, clattering machines. Estela rallies the women as the 200-dress order lands like a meteor. The blocking is all motion: scissors, measurements, bodies navigating narrow aisles.

Lyrical Meaning:

The lyric turns survival into choreography. “Work” is not only employment. It is community discipline. The number establishes the show’s moral baseline: no one gets out alone.

"Flying Away" (Ana)

The Scene:

Ana breaks from the factory noise into a private pocket of light. The setting can be a corner of the shop, a stoop, a bus stop. The point is isolation. Her future feels far and loudly imagined.

Lyrical Meaning:

This is the show’s central dilemma in song form. Ana’s dream is not rebellion for sport. It is a strategy to change her family’s story, even if it means leaving the room where that story is being written.

"If I Were A Bird" (Itzel, Ana)

The Scene:

Itzel, the Guatemalan worker, shares a fantasy with Ana. The lighting softens, the factory edges blur, and the scene becomes a quiet duet inside chaos.

Lyrical Meaning:

The metaphor is simple and therefore dangerous. Flight is freedom. Flight is escape. Flight is also what undocumented life does not allow. The lyric makes longing sound ordinary, which is the cruel truth.

"Daydream" (Estela, Company)

The Scene:

Estela imagines what her talent could become beyond piecework. The staging often gives her a brief “runway” moment: fabric transforms into possibility, lights warm up, and the women become an audience in the best sense.

Lyrical Meaning:

Estela’s lyric is ambition without entitlement. She is not asking for fame. She is asking for the dignity of being paid for her vision.

"Already Know You" (Henry, Ana, Company)

The Scene:

A romantic number that refuses to be syrupy. Ana and Henry circle each other while the community keeps moving around them. The lights go softer, but the tempo stays alert.

Lyrical Meaning:

The lyric is about recognition. Henry does not “save” Ana. He sees her. The song matters because it treats young love as partnership, not escape hatch.

"Oye Muchacha" (Carmen, Ana, Estela, Company)

The Scene:

A mother-daughter confrontation detonates in front of the factory tribe. Lighting hardens, angles sharpen, and the scene plays like a trial where every witness is also family.

Lyrical Meaning:

Carmen’s language weaponizes care. Ana’s language defends autonomy. The lyric conflict is the show’s true plot: love expressed as control versus love expressed as trust.

"Adios Andres" (Carmen, Factory Ladies)

The Scene:

Act II. Grief and memory enter the factory. The women’s work slows. Lights drop to something more candle-like, even if no candles are present.

Lyrical Meaning:

The lyric lets Carmen be more than a scold. It exposes her softness and the cost of being the family’s wall. This is where the show earns empathy the hard way.

"Real Women Have Curves" (Ana, Factory Ladies)

The Scene:

Act II showstopper. The women strip to their undergarments in the factory heat, laughing, fanning themselves, and refusing shame. The lighting turns celebratory but stays human: no glamour filter, just relief.

Lyrical Meaning:

It is body positivity with teeth. The lyric does not ask permission. It claims space. It also functions as solidarity politics: the women build a room where dignity is non-negotiable.

"Life Is Like A Dance" (Raúl, Carmen)

The Scene:

Late Act II. A married couple finds a calmer rhythm, away from the factory chorus. Lighting warms. The stage picture breathes.

Lyrical Meaning:

The lyric reframes Carmen’s rigidity as fear of falling. The dance metaphor is not decorative. It is permission to be imperfect in front of someone who stays.

Live updates

Information current as of February 1, 2026.

The musical’s timeline is fast, and a little brutal. After its A.R.T. world premiere (December 2023 to January 2024), the show transferred to Broadway’s James Earl Jones Theatre, beginning previews April 1, 2025 and opening April 27, 2025. It then announced a closing and played its final performance June 29, 2025, after 31 previews and 73 regular performances.

The good news for listeners is stronger than the news for investors. The Original Broadway Cast Recording dropped June 6, 2025 on Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight, with a 17-track album clocking in at just under an hour. Four tracks were released early, including “Make It Work” and “Flying Away,” essentially a “start here” kit for anyone trying to learn the show’s emotional map quickly.

As of early 2026, there is no major national tour publicly positioned as “next.” The show’s afterlife is currently most visible in its recording and in continued attention to the source play in regional theatre. If you want the score, it is easy to find. If you want the staging, you are waiting for a revival, a tour announcement, or the next big regional bet.

Notes & trivia

• The musical premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge on December 6, 2023 and closed January 21, 2024.
• Broadway previews began April 1, 2025; opening night was April 27, 2025 at the James Earl Jones Theatre.
• The Broadway run ended June 29, 2025, after 31 previews and 73 regular performances.
• The Original Broadway Cast Recording was released June 6, 2025 and contains 17 tracks (about 53 minutes).
• Four songs were released in advance of the full album, including “Make It Work,” “Flying Away,” and the title number.
• The title song is staged as an undergarments number and became the production’s most cited “moment,” praised even by mixed reviewers.
• Sergio Trujillo has described the show as a tribute to seamstresses, including his own mother, and that labor focus is baked into the staging and lyric vocabulary.

Reception

The critical argument has been consistent across incarnations: the musical is a crowd pleaser with real stakes, and that mix is either its strength or its dodge. The A.R.T. response included praise for joy and representation, plus concern that hard subjects can get smoothed into uplift. On Broadway, major outlets highlighted the timing and the cultural visibility, while noting that the show sometimes chooses comfort over complication. Then the box office reality arrived, and the production closed quickly.

“A celebratory crowd pleaser, for better and worse.”

A “powerful, humorous lens into immigrant life.”

A Broadway debut that “lets the Latino community see itself.”

Quick facts

• Title: Real Women Have Curves: The Musical
• Year: 2023 (world premiere)
• Type: Contemporary book musical adaptation
• Music & lyrics: Joy Huerta, Benjamin Velez
• Book: Lisa Loomer with Nell Benjamin
• Based on: Josefina López’s play and the 2002 film screenplay by López and George LaVoo
• Premiere: American Repertory Theater, Cambridge (Dec 6, 2023 to Jan 21, 2024)
• Broadway run: James Earl Jones Theatre (previews Apr 1, 2025; opened Apr 27; closed Jun 29)
• Music supervision: Nadia DiGiallonardo
• Orchestrations: Bill Sherman, Cian McCarthy
• Signature lyrical placements: “Make It Work” (Act I opener), “Oye Muchacha” (Act I confrontation), “Real Women Have Curves” (Act II showstopper)
• Cast album: Original Broadway Cast Recording (June 6, 2025), 17 tracks, Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight
• Availability: Major streaming platforms and digital stores

Frequently asked questions

Who wrote the lyrics for “Real Women Have Curves”?

The music and lyrics are by Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez.

Is the musical the same as the play and the film?

It tells the same core story and keeps key characters, but the musical version reshapes scenes into song-driven set pieces and adds new musical structure and comic rhythm.

What is the best “starter” sequence if I am new to the score?

Try “Make It Work,” then “Flying Away,” then “Oye Muchacha.” That trio lays out the community, Ana’s ambition, and the mother-daughter fight that powers the plot.

What is the title song actually about?

It is the show’s body-politics thesis. The women reject shame, claim comfort, and build solidarity, without pretending the outside world stops judging them.

Is the Broadway production still running?

No. The Broadway run closed June 29, 2025.

Is there an official cast recording?

Yes. The Original Broadway Cast Recording was released June 6, 2025.

Key contributors

Sources: American Repertory Theater (Digital Program); Playbill; Associated Press; The Washington Post; American Theatre; Broadway Direct; People; Broadway.com; The Tony Awards; Wikipedia; YouTube (official channel); Apple Music.