This season’s best musical surprise is “Real Women Have Curves,” a fun, bodice-bursting collision of compassion and comedy revolving around a bright, 18 year-old Chicana woman living in the Boyle Heights section of East Los Angeles in 1987, during the Reagan-era amnesty program for longtime undocumented immigrants.

Ambitious Ana Garcia (newcomer Tatianna Cordoba) is a first-generation Mexican-American who yearns to be a journalist; she’s not only been admitted to Columbia University but also given a full scholarship. Problem is: since she’s the only one in her family with U.S. citizenship, she has certain responsibilities she’s expected to fulfill.

Her cynical, resilient Mexican mother, Carmen (Justina Machado), settled in Southern California years ago with her father Raul (Mauricio Mendoza) and started a small garment factory that’s now run on a shoe-string by Ana’s hard-working older sister Estella (Florencia Cuenca).

Suddenly, one day, they’re given an order for 200 dresses to be filled in a scant three weeks, causing a make-or-break crisis. Avidly sewing alongside the tight-knit Garcias are five other vulnerable Guatemalan and Salvadoran women – all of whom live in constant fear of Immigration Naturalization Service (INS) raids.

The generational trauma inherent in that challenging émigré experience is as valid today as it was then – perhaps even more so, given the current, unforgiving political climate.

Meanwhile, there’s a sweet romance blossoming between Ana and Henry (Mason Reeves), a fellow intern on a locally distributed Spanish-English newspaper. Plus a unique appreciation of full-figured women’s bodies that culminates in a joyously bold, crowd-pleasing, second-act show-stopper!

Based on Josefina Lopez’s same-named 1990 play and its HBO film adaptation (2002) starring America Ferrera, it’s adroitly directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo – celebrating culture and community – with vibrant Latin music and lyrics by Joy Huerta & Benjamin Velez and a heartfelt book by Lisa Loomer & Nell Benjamin.

The multi-textured set is by Arnulfo Malfonsfo, lighting by Natasha Katz, costumes by Wilberth Gonzalez and Paloma Young, and video by Hana S. Kim.

Running 2 hours, 15 minutes with one intermission, “Real Women Have Curves” is currently playing at the James Earl Jones Theater on Broadway.

Nearly four years after Alex Baldwin’s prop Colt .45 – inadvertently loaded with ‘live’ ammunition – killed 42 year-old Ukrainian cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza, their movie “Rust” is now streaming.

Instead of consigning the film to the scrap-heap where it belongs, vultures are circling as profiteers from a senseless tragedy that never should have happened. More about that later.

Set in Wyoming, 1882, the gunfire-filled, low-budget Western revolves around Lucas Hollister (Patrick Scott McDermott), a 13 year-old orphan, sentenced to hang for an accidental shooting and saved by his outlaw grandfather, Harlan Rust (Baldwin). Together, these fugitives head for Mexico, doggedly pursued by ruthless bounty hunters.

Underwritten by director Joel Souza from Alec Baldwin’s story, it’s inept, at best, never resolving its 19^th century law/justice/religion narrative themes. While there are some visually compelling landscape scenes, most interior shots are dark and murky with heavy use of silhouette. Although Bianca Cline operated the camera after Hutchins’ death, it’s impossible to differentiate their cinematography.

Now about ‘live’ ammunition on the set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Oct. 21, 2021. Although an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin was dismissed – based on police/prosecutors withholding evidence from the defense – he was also a producer on the film and – as such – responsible for on-set conduct and hiring a young, inexperienced armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was sentenced to 18-months in prison.

My father (S. Sylvan Simon), adoptive father (Armand Deutsch), brother (Stephen Simon) and son (Don Granger) were/are producers, so I am familiar with that role’s responsibility. There is NO excuse for ‘live’ ammunition on a film set. None! 

So who profits from “Rust”?  In 2022, Halyna’s widower Matthew settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the film’s producers, who were protected by an LLC listing only one thing of value: the movie. That resulted in his billing as one of the executive producers, and their son Andros will receive profits from the film. But inevitably, ‘creative’ bookkeeping will determine how much that is.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Rust” is a tragedy-riddled 2, streaming on Prime Video, Apple TV and other video-on-demand platforms.

Catch up with Susan Granger’s latest reviews here:

• May 8: “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” and “Good American Family”
• May 1: “Just in Time” and Nightbitch”
• April 24: “We Had a World” and “Snow White” 
• April 17: Broadway’s “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “1923” Season 2

Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in Journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has appeared on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie critic for many years. Read all her reviews at susangranger.com.