Tatianna Córdoba Gets Her Wings ‘In Real Women Have Curves’

The new Broadway musical Real Women Have Curves is making a big splash at the James Earl Jones Theatre. In this joyous, reflective show with a big heart, Ana García is a high school senior and aspiring writer living in East Los Angeles. It’s 1987 and Ana dreams of going to Columbia University. A child of Mexican immigrants, she is the only United States citizen in her family, who relies on her.

As much as Carmen, Ana’s mother loves and deeply cares for her daughter, Carmen believes that Ana needs to stay close by and continue to work in Ana’s sister’s garment factory, where the family works. But everything is put to the test when Ana’s sister, Estela, gets a high-stakes order to make 200 dresses on a crazy deadline. And Ana’s dreams and loyalty hang in the balance.

Based on the play by Josefina López which inspired the iconic hit film, Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, with a book by Lisa Loomer with Nell Benjamin. Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez wrote the show’s uplifting and reflective songs, like “Flying Away” which illuminates Ana’s struggle to stay true to her wishes while wanting to thrive and succeed.

As the lyrics go:

“What’s the point of having wings at all/If I never leave the ground?/Why settle for less?/I’ll impress thеm and show/I belong skyward bound…. Flying away/I’ll make her see/That I’m gonna change the world/And still be the daughter she wants me to be/Could I fly away/With the wind on my side?/I hope that I’ll fly/With them on my side.”

Making her Broadway debut as Ana, Tatianna Córdoba has been longing to be in Real Women Have Curves for forever. “Being a young Latin woman in musical theater, there is not much that we can directly identify with in the musical theater canon. So when you learn about a show that’s about Latin women, you can’t let go of that,” says Córdoba. “I wanted to be a part of it in some capacity. I joked that I would have played a sewing machine in this show.”

Córdoba’s ties with Real Women Have Curves run deep. She used one of the monologues from the original play to audition for Berklee College of Music and was accepted into the program with a scholarship. She grew up in the Bay Area outside San Francisco where the show first debuted in 1990. And then there were all the auditions that she had.

“I have been auditioning for this show for about two and a half years in different forms,” she says. “I auditioned for a workshop. I auditioned for a reading. I auditioned for an out-of-town tryout in Boston. I was in final callbacks for that and it never was my time.”

And then last December it was Córdoba’s time. After a week of auditions and callbacks for the show she got word via her agent that they were going to do another notes session with her on Zoom. At that point she had spent a week dancing, singing and doing scenes. “I thought, ‘Really? Another notes session? Can’t I just be done and then, if I get it, you call me in two weeks?’”

But when she got on the Zoom and about 15 or 20 people were ultimately of brought on, Córdoba began to wonder what was up. “Then they told me I got the part. I’ve never cried so hard in my whole life,” says Córdoba. “I was so excited. It felt like this big release of emotion after all of the work.”

Doing Real Women Have Curves eight times a week with a cast that includes Justina Machado as Carmen, Florencia Cuenca as Estela, Shelby Acosta, Carla Jimenez, Aline Mayagoitia, Mauricio Mendoza, Mason Reeves, Jennifer Sánchez and Sandra Valls, continues to be a dream come true for Córdoba and makes all those years of auditioning for Ana worth it. When asked about how she remained unstoppable, she says that something in her heart kept her intrepid. “I had to be,” she says. “I would have auditioned for it as many times as they needed.”

Córdoba’s zen-like attitude continues to be her driving force. “Since I graduated I learned that the projects that are meant for you will happen at some point. Of course, I was disappointed when I didn’t get cast because I am so passionate about this project,” she says. “But I had no other choice but to believe that the things that are meant for you will come around.”

Jeryl Brunner: Ana has so much heart and drive. She wants to move forward with her life and also deeply cares about her family who rely on her so much. What qualities does Ana have that you adore?

Tatianna Córdoba: I always say that Ana is everything I wish I would have been at 18-years-old. She has so much fire, drive and confidence. I had a lot of drive and spunk to me at 18, but the confidence that she has at such a young age is so admirable. She really believes in herself in a way that I wish I did at that age.

Brunner: In many ways Ana is fearless.

Córdoba: What’s cool about Ana is that her fire gets her into rooms that she wouldn’t necessarily get into if it wasn’t for that fire. In many ways I feel like Ana’s big sister. As much as I have a lot of similar traits, one thing that she lacks, at least at the start of the show, is a sense of understanding and empathy for her family and the women in the factory and what they have had to go through in order to even be there. That is a really cool journey for her.

Brunner: Also, her family loves her so much. Throughout the show you’re really on everybody’s side. You want the family to thrive and you also are rooting for Ana. There’s this dichotomy.

Córdoba: I believe that Carmen’s relationship with Ana—how Carmen deals with Ana’s fire and drive, comes from a sense of fear. A lot of parents can be overbearing or strict, especially when they are in a country that they don’t really know. A lot of Carmen’s overbearing attitude and protectiveness towards Ana comes from fear of the unknown. It’s a cool layer that Justina, [Justina Machado, who plays Carmen], explores so brilliantly. That is why you end up actually really loving Carmen, because you can see that it comes from care more than anything.

Brunner: What inspired you to become an artist?

Córdoba: My dad is a Latin musician, and my mom was a dancer. I was surrounded by music and dance. My mom put me in ballet as soon as I could walk and I watched my dad sing and grew up around musicians all the time. I discovered musical theater when my parents showed me the 1980s Annie and I lost my mind. It was the coolest thing in the whole wide world. There was this little girl, not much older than me, doing this awesome thing on TV. I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ Singing, dancing and doing this thing called acting all together was so cool.

I didn’t give my parents a choice about anything else for me to do because I loved it so much. Even from a very young age, I took a lot of initiative and they were always very supportive. I took a lot of initiative at a young age and would say, ‘I heard about this play that they’re doing at school and I really want to do it.’

Brunner: So what was your first show?

Córdoba: When I was seven or eight-years-old I was in Sleeping Beauty at a community theater playing townsperson number four.

Brunner: Does your father, Armando Córdoba Jr., compose his own work?

Córdoba: My dad writes his own music and is kind of a genius. One thing that is awesome about my dad is that he doesn’t know how to read music and was never properly trained. But he plays the piano, percussion and drums. And he’s a singer and writes his own music without knowing how to do any of those things. I ended up going to a performing arts school for middle and high school I learned how to read music. There was a point where we started to teach one other things, which was really cool.

Brunner: How important is it, especially now, to tell the story of immigrants and a Latina woman?

Córdoba: It means so much to me and all of the cast. As a young brown Latin girl doing musical theater, it’s hard to see yourself doing something if you don’t have examples of someone that you identify with. Whether it’s an astronaut, police officer, fireman or actor. A lot of people in the cast have talked about how getting a chance to be that face or voice for people to say, ‘I can do this too, is amazing.

The other day I performed Ana’s big song, “Flying Away” at 54 Below. I had a moment where I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this song is out in the world. And young Latin actors can sing it.’ We released that song and a few other songs ahead of our full cast album. [The full original Broadway cast recording will be released on streaming and digital platforms June 6 on Ghostlight Records.] And it is out in the world for them. They can bring that song into auditions. Knowing that my voice is what they listen to when they’re practicing is such a crazy thing to wrap my head around.