Jennifer Lopez’s remake of Kiss of the Spider Woman opens this Friday, October 10. It’s based on the book and the musical starring Chita Rivera, with some inspiration taken from the 1985 movie, which is not a musical. If you’re unfamiliar with KOTSW, it’s a movie-within-a-movie plotline. Two Argentine prisoners are sharing a cell in the 1970s. One is a political prisoner (Diego Luna) that’s part of a group trying to overthrow the government while the other one is a queer window dresser imprisoned for “public indecency” (Tonatiuh). The window dresser creates his own fantasy world for both himself and his cellmate involving his favorite actress, Ingrid Luna (JLo), and his favorite movie, Kiss of the Spider Woman. There’s a lot that happens in between, but I don’t want to get too spoilery! Speaking of spoilers, on Monday, People published an exclusive clip from Kiss of the Spider Woman. It’s a minute-long excerpt of the scene that sets up the song “Her Name is Aurora.”
Kiss of the Spider Woman, from writer-director Bill Condon, marks the first-ever movie musical for Lopez, 56. It’s about time, considering the role of movie-within-a-movie star Ingrid Luna seems tailor-made for the triple threat.
A clip from the film (in theaters Oct. 10) shared exclusively with PEOPLE offers a glimpse of Lopez’s stellar singing and dancing alongside dapper costars Tonatiuh and Diego Luna. Crooning John Kander and Fred Ebb’s “Her Name Is Aurora” from their Broadway musical, the actress tangoes with Tonatiuh, 30, in a lavish ballroom, draped in opera gloves and a stunning gold gown (which she recently revealed weighed 50 pounds!).
The sequence is a Technicolor fantasy dreamed up by Tonatiuh’s character, a queer, Argentine political prisoner named Luis Molina narrating flights of fancy to distract himself and his cellmate, Luna’s revolutionary Valentin Arregui. Luis is recalling scenes from Ingrid’s fictional movie Kiss of the Spider Woman — imagining himself and Valentin playing roles in it.
In the clip, Luna’s Valentin guesses that a movie-within-a-movie character is “not just a genius, he’s tall, dark and handsome.” Tonatiuh’s Luis says, “Of course… He sings and dances too.”
When Valentin dismisses such a musical fantasy as “ridiculous,” it’s Luis who inserts his cellmate into their shared cinematic imagination: “If only you could see him the way I do.” A suavely dressed Luna then emerges on the ballroom floor, making eyes at an intrigued Lopez.
The new Kiss of the Spider Woman, which first premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, is a reimagining of the stage musical from Kander, Ebb and Terrence McNally that first starred Chita Rivera on Broadway in 1993. It also draws inspiration from the 1985 film starring William Hurt, Raul Julia and Sônia Braga; all are adapted from Argentine writer Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel.
“Her Name Is Aurora” is one of several numbers in the movie that has Lopez showing off her musical theater bona fides. Playing Ingrid — and her movie-within-a-movie characters Aurora and the Spider Woman — the Unstoppable star shot many heavily choreographed scenes with long, uninterrupted takes in the style of the mid-20th century movie musicals Condon, 69, evokes.
This clip is beautifully shot and JLo sounds great, but it’s not really giving us any new material! The trailers gave us much more, including parts of what we see in the clip. The movie itself has a lot to live up to, but so far, it looks really good. I haven’t seen enough to make an educated guess about KOTSW’s chances for acting Oscars, but the trailers are already making great cases for it to at least be in the conversation for costumes and cinematography.
I really am excited for this movie. I admire JLo’s hustle and work ethic, and am currently in a major Diego Luna stan era. Also, I didn’t realize how many movies are coming out this Friday! We have KOTSW, Tron: Ares, and After the Hunt. It should be a busy weekend at the box office.
Photos credit: Backgrid and ASPN/Backgrid, screenshots from YouTube
If this doesn’t get JLo at least an Oscar nomination, then nothing will. Personally, I hope she does get an Oscar for this. I haven’t seen the movie yet of course, but she works so hard, and it looks like this film was tailored to her strengths.
Can’t see anything else because I’m so distracted by the blonde hair! Is it a plot point that makes it necessary?
It’s so bad. Blonde is not her color at all.
I’ve always had a soft spot for J Lo, her taste in men notwithstanding. Hope this movie does well.
Why does every movie JLo is in feel like a last gasp cry for credibility? It doesn’t have to be this way, they could market the movie in a way is beyond a JLo redemption story. I also think that she overpowers her roles. She’s good in everything but I’m always aware that she’s performing and selling. It doesn’t feel authentic or evoke emotional reactions when I watch, it’s more like “she’s doing a good job!”
Eh… I love Diego Luna but Jennifer Lopez seems totally wrong for this? She’s just chewing the scenery in these trailers.
I’ll see it! I know I saw the movie with Sonia Braga but don’t remember much about it. I would have loved to see the Broadway production with Chita Rivera!! The blonde hair doesn’t bother me because that’s what Hollywood did way back when–make women platinum blondes whether it suited them or not.
@BeanieBean, I saw Chita Rivera in this show!! Though not on Broadway, but when Chita joined the touring production after the Bway run. I was lucky enough to have a mother who thought getting to see Chita in this performance was more important than the fact that I was only 7 at the time. So while I can’t really remember/report on the experience other than the vague excitement at the “sparkly lady,” and the story of Argentinian political prisoners talking sexuality and revolution went a bit over my seven-year-old head, I CAN say that I saw Chita Rivera play this part! Which is all my mother ever wanted.
This looks like a movie Madonna would have done back in the day – with her original face.
I do hope it does well. It will be nice to see a musical doing numbers again (Sinners doesn’t count).
But… is that JLo really singing? Her voice isn’t normally that strong?