Theatre News

Further cast announced for Kiss of the Spider Woman musical film with Jennifer Lopez

Bill Condon is set to direct the big-screen version of the classic

Tom Millward

Alex Wood

| Nationwide |

10 April 2024

jopez1 — Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna, © dvsross, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons (left) and Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons (right)

Further casting has been announced for the upcoming film adaptation of the 1992 West End musical Kiss of the Spider Woman.

The movie is set to be written and directed by Bill Condon (Dreamgirls), based on the book by Terrence McNally (which was in turn adapted from the novel by Manuel Puig). The score is by John Kander and Fred Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago) and features such standards as “Dressing Them Up”, “She’s a Woman” and the titular number.

Kiss of the Spider Woman is set in 1981 in an Argentinian jail, where a gay hairdresser named Luis Molina is serving an eight-year sentence for allegedly corrupting a minor. He forms an unlikely bond with his cellmate – a Marxist named Valentin Arregui Paz – and creates fantasies in his own mind about a classic silver screen siren named Aurora to escape the horrors of prison.

As already confirmed, Jennifer Lopez is attached to star as Aurora in the flick, while joining her and revealed last night by Deadline will be Diego Luna (Andor), playing Valentin Arregui, and Tonatiuh (Carry On) as Luis Molina.

Following workshops and initial productions at the State University of New York and in Toronto from 1990, the musical would stage its West End premiere at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1992 ahead of a Broadway debut in 1993. The latter would go on to win a total of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

Condon’s previous film credits include the likes of Chicago (2002), Dreamgirls (2006), Beauty and the Beast (2017) and The Greatest Showman (2017), while Lopez has starred in such movies as Selena (1997), Maid in Manhattan (2002) and Hustlers (2019).

Kiss of the Spider Woman is produced by Barry Josephson, Tom Kirdahy, Greg Yolen and Matt Geller, with Lopez, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Benny Medina serving as executive producers on behalf of Nuyorican Productions.

Puig’s novel was previously adapted into a 1985 feature film, which saw William Hurt win an Oscar for his portrayal of Molina.

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