★★★ (3 out of 4)
The late, great Stephen Sondheim often criticized critics of musicals for being ill-informed and uneducated in the craft. When I first met the maestro, he allowed that I didn’t actually disgrace myself in my review of his 1994 Broadway musical, “Passion,” suggesting that I had at least some insight into how his music and lyrics spoke for and against the show’s source material, a 1981 Ettore Scola film called “Passione D’amore.” That Sondheim compliment, however left-handed, spoke to our twin passions for movies and musical theater and what a beast it is to bring them together in harmony.
That beast comes to mind as I write this review of the alternately terrific and tepid “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” the 2025 film version of the 1993 Broadway musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, that was preceded by a 1985 non-musical film of the same name from Brazilian director Hector Babenco and before that a 1976 novel by Argentine author Manuel Puig.
For the latest version, the big news is star news. Oscar buzz is all over Jennifer Lopez as Luna, a screen diva of the purest fantasy. The two men obsessed with her are jailbirds—Valentín (Diego Luna), a revolutionary, and Molina (Tonatiuh), a window dresser convicted of public indecency. Both men share the same grimy cell that suddenly bursts with color and spectacle when they talk of Luna and her role as the Spider Woman in a Hollywood film.
Writer-director Bill Condon, who mastered stage-to-screen magic in his film version of “Dreamgirls,” brings out the best in his three leads. Lopez, not one to stand in the shadow of the iconic Chita Rivera who created the role, puts her own stamp on Luna, less Broadway brass than Latina pop sparkle. It’s a tradeoff that may leave fans caught in the middle. I can’t get Chita’s voice and lithe moves out of my head and heart.
While Lopez stays fixed in make-believe, the male characters must do the dramatic heavy lifting. Diego Luna has Valentín’s political agenda to hoist and sometimes the strain shows. Tonatiuh, following in the footsteps of William Hurt’s Oscar-winning turn as Molina, has the advantage of using music and movement to express the tenderness and longing in this queer outcast. He doesn’t desire Luna, he aches to be her.
Alternately terrific and tepid, this swirl of song, dance and Technicolor keeps the musical alive on screen with the help of Jennifer Lopez, a star who can hold the camera and bend it to her will. Get caught in the web of this Spider Woman and maybe you won’t want to escape.
Much tinkering has been done to the show, not all to the good. The songs and dialogue between Valentín and Molina have been reduced to make room for more JLo glitz and glamor. Almost every song set between the two men in prison is out, notably "Dressing Them Up," "Over the Wall" and "The Day After That.”
In their place are three new songs written for the film by Kander with existing additional lyrical material by the late Ebb, entitled "I Will Dance Alone," "Never You," and "An Everyday Man,” most of which contrive to get Lopez back in the picture.
There is a definite loss of intimacy in the scenes with Valentín and Molina. But my guess is that audiences won’t complain about a surfeit of razzle dazzle. This kind of thing happened in Bob Fosse’s brilliant film version of another Kander and Ebb musical, “Cabaret,” excising the low-key personal drama among the older characters to get to the dazzle and fleshy depravity. The hit film version of the team’s “Chicago” followed suit.
In the end, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” suffers in comparison to the one-two punch of “Cabaret” and “Chicago.” It’s just not in that legendary league. Still, kudos to Condon and company. Working over fewer days on a less than luxe budget, they have still produced a swirl of song, dance and Technicolor that keeps the musical alive on screen with the help of a star who can hold the camera and bend it to her will. Get caught in the web of this Spider Woman and maybe you won’t want to escape.