In fact, the 32-year-old star of Real Women Have Curves didn’t even tell her own mother that she was going to be making her Broadway debut until the show actually materialized.
“This dream felt so far away from me,” Cuenca exclusively told Parade the day before her opening night. “It felt like when kids dream about going to Mars or space — it felt really, really far away. And when my manager called me, and he said, ‘Okay, we got the offer,’ I was like, ‘I don't want to tell anybody. Let's just keep it secret!’ And I didn't say anything for like three months because I was so scared. The only one that knew was my husband, and everybody was asking me. My mom was like, ‘What's the update?’ And I would be like, ‘I don't know.’”
Rebecca J Michelson
View the 3 images of this gallery on the original articleIt was an act of love, Cuenca explained. “I just wanted to protect her,” she said. “Broadway is weird. I don't know what's gonna happen.”
That includes what was in store for her opening night. Cuenca told Parade that her best-laid plans went astray, and what she intended to wear for her big Broadway debut was stuck in Memphis, Tenn.
Rebecca J Michelson
View the 3 images of this gallery on the original articleThe timing couldn’t have been worse. “I was running around the streets of New York,” Cuenca explained, admitting that she was in the middle of a full-on breakdown. However, she said, “I met my friend Wilberth [Gonzalez], who is a designer on Real Women Have Curves. He was like, ‘What's going on?’ And I told him everything. And he was like, ‘Okay, no worries. We're gonna make it work.’”
Rebecca J Michelson
View the 3 images of this gallery on the original articleThe dress Cuenca found while on the hunt in New York City, she said, didn’t fit. “I called Wilberth, and I was like, ‘Okay, this is the dress. I love it because with my body, I think it works. It's flowers, and it's very dreamy, but also, like spring, and he was like, ‘Just buy it, and let's go to the shop, and we're gonna make it work.’
“So I bought it. We went to buy some fabric, and then we brought it to the ladies that are doing the costumes for the show, all Latinas. This is the power of community, right? Like, it amazes me how a community always has your back. And I got there, and everybody was like, ‘Okay, mi amor, you don't worry. We're gonna make it work.’”
Florencia CuencaRebecca J Michelson
Community is especially important in Real Women Have Curves, a musical about fighting for your dreams and the power of family. The show not only spotlights the Latinx community, but also people with real bodies — people with curves.
Rebecca J Michelson
View the 3 images of this gallery on the original articleIn the house at the James Earl Jones Theatre for her opening night on Sunday, April 27, Cuenca had some very important familia in the audience, including her husband, Jaime Lozano, her 8-year-old son, her mother, grandmother and sister.
“My mom and my grandma arrived yesterday from Mexico City,” said Cuenca, who prepared for her big Broadway opening at the W New York Times Square. “My grandma is 85 years old. She doesn't travel anymore. … But because this is so important for me, she decided to come, and it's like the biggest act of love that she can do for me. They both have sacrificed so much for me, so it feels amazing to gift this to them.”
Florencia CuencaRebecca J Michelson
She has her onstage sisters, too. “It truly feels like a family, la familia. Most of the cast are Latinos. It's so healing to switch to Spanish [in conversation],” Cuenca explained. “Sometimes, you know, when you cannot find the words in English, you can feel safe to switch to Spanish and do jokes… or the music or the food. It feels like a family opening a show. The ladies [who play the women at] the factory, we are hermanas. Hermanas means sisters, and it truly feels like that.”
“This is for the community,” Cuenca said. “I am doing this for my community.”
Rebecca J Michelson
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