How Florencia Cuenca’s Opening-Night Setback Turned Into the Most Powerful Moment of Her Broadway Debut (Exclusive) ...Saudi Arabia

Florencia Cuenca knows all too well that anything can happen on Broadway.

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.’”

Florencia Cuenca

Rebecca J Michelson

? SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox ? 

It 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.

Florencia Cuenca

Rebecca J Michelson

“Originally, I was supposed to be dressed by this amazing Mexican designer Benito Santos. He's from Mexico, from Guadalajara, and he sent my opening-night look, which was custom made for my measurements. As you know, I'm a curvy woman, so I'm always looking for someone who can work with my body,” Cuenca explained. “We've been back and forth with FedEx and trying to get to it, and it's not happening. So yesterday, I went to Macy's.”

The 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.’”

Florencia Cuenca

Rebecca J Michelson

It was life imitating art for Cuenca, whose character Estela opens the show with a number aptly titled “Make It Work,” about a group of women trying to fulfill their job expectations, no matter the case.

The 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.’”

Rebecca J Michelson

At the time of this interview, “They are working on it in the shop,” Cuenca said a mere 24 hours before her show opened. “Hopefully, we'll be ready for tomorrow. And of course, I am bummed that my original plan is not working. But everything happens for a reason, and God always has my back, and most important, my community.”

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.

Florencia Cuenca

Rebecca J Michelson

“I think it's very important to have real bodies, real people on stage,” Cuenca told Parade. “I feel the fact that I'm on a stage — center stage — it's a political act, right? I am a Mexican, curvy, Brown immigrant, and I feel like representation matters so much. When I was growing up, I didn't see someone like myself on a stage, and for a long time, I thought, ‘Okay, there's no place for me on Broadway. But now that I'm providing that for my community, my hope is that the younger generation is like, ‘Oh, she can do it? I can do it, too.’”

In 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.”

Rebecca J Michelson

Related: Andrew Durand, Broadway's 'Dead Outlaw,' Is Dressed to Kill on Opening Night (Exclusive)

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.”

Florencia Cuenca

Rebecca J Michelson

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( How Florencia Cuenca’s Opening-Night Setback Turned Into the Most Powerful Moment of Her Broadway Debut (Exclusive) )

Also on site :

• Could 100 Men Really Take on One Gorilla and Win? We Asked ChatGPT
• Trump sees no red line that would change tariff policy - The Atlantic
• Damaging winds and tornadoes possible Monday in Minneapolis