2/27/2026 KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Hulu (et alia)
THE WEB OF KANDER AND EBB
Okay, so I knew there was a movie version of Kander and Ebb’s Kiss of the Spider Woman in the works for 2025. What I didn’t know was that it premiered at the 2025 Sundance Festival to a standing ovation and was released theatrically in October (to mostly positive reviews) after which it sank like a stone, one of the biggest box office failures of the year. As far as I know, it never even played anywhere near my home in Central Florida. It is already available for streaming on Hulu and other services.
So, who was correct? Is it as good as the Sundance audience thought? Was it as (semi-sorta) good as the critics thought? Was it as awful as audiences seemed to think? Or was it just a matter of the production PR staff asleep at the switch?
Not to belabor the point, but I liked it. A lot. I wish I had had an opportunity to see it on a large screen as visually it is a study in contrasts, going so far as to switch aspect ratios between the prison scenes and the flood of movie musical magic that make life bearable for its characters, something totally lost on small(ish) screens.
I've been a fan of Kiss of the Spider Woman ever since its 1992 opening, having devoured the original Manuel Puig novel as well as the 1985 movie adaptation. I saw Chita Rivera dazzling in the first nationwide tour. Here, director and adapter Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Gods and Monsters) made some significant changes to script and structure, most of which work to the project’s benefit.
The scene is a grungy grimy prison cell in Argentina in 1983, the first change from previous versions (which specify a “nameless South American country”). This works because it provides historical context for an event which dramatically changes the ending, which we’ll get to in a moment. Or not – the ending was a surprise for me, and the Spoiler Police can be strict.
Molina is a gay window dresser imprisoned for “corrupting the morals of a minor – male.” He is placed in a cell with Valentin, a revolutionary in wait for the torture train. What follows is a number of scenes in which Molina shares his fantasies and memories of movie star Ingrid Luna and his favorite movie – a cheesy thing called Kiss of the Spider Woman, in which Ms. Luna plays a blonde-wigged Latin spitfire named Aurora. Molina spends his time recounting the movie’s scenes and dialog in vivid detail, eventually convincing Valentin that this narration provides a tenuous hold on sanity before the inevitability of hopelessness or disease or the torturers’ kindnesses. It is to the Condon’s credit that the primary roles in the movie interludes are played by Molina and Valentin themselves.
Mr. Condon has taken a page out of the Fosse-Cabaret school of keeping songs out of the non-musical sequences. Which is (at first viewing) cause for concern as the “in-the-cell” songs are some of the best in the show, especially “Dressing Them Up” and “The Day After That.” The plot weight carried by these songs is carried by dialogue, which (more often than not) echoes the lyrics of the lost songs. OTOH, the scene that Valentin narrates in the “Day After That” spot contains a grim surprise that was never even hinted at in the original song.
Which means ALL the songs are in the “Movie” segments, with the addition of three new songs (which were actually part of an earlier 1990 version of the show) – “I Will Dance Alone,” “Never You,” and “An Everyday Man.”
If this sounds dark and depressing, it sometimes is. But it’s also filled with exuberance and passion and love-of-the-life-we-left-behind. What other musical would dare to end with a non-ironic “Only in the Movies’ song-and-dance number sparked by {spoiler ahead} the death of a character? What other musical would make it seem like a happy ending?
The heart and soul of this movie is Tonatiuh as Molina. The flashiest of roles, it always attracts over-the-top performances (Brent Carver won a Tony for the original production, William Hurt won his Oscar for the non-musical movie version, and Craig Waldrip overwhelmed in the Actor’s Express production from 2012). Tonatiuh comes across as a bit less flashy than expected (though he is sufficiently so to sell the role). He is able to show us the depths of Molina, expressing volumes in his attitudes and his reactions and, especially, his eyes. He totally sells us on his love for his favorite movie and seems equally at home in the closeted character he plays in those sequences, I loved every moment he was on screen.
Andor’s Diego Luna brings to Valentin a kinder, gentler approach to the character that prior adaptations scripted out. His friendship, even his attraction to Molina is well-justified, and pays off beautifully in the final image of the movie.
Let’s be honest here – Jennifer Lopez (as Ingrid Luna and Aurora) is no Chita Rivera, but, to her credit, she doesn’t try to be. She brings her own star power to the role and is able to carry the many musical moments spectacularly. I was particularly impressed with the skill and range she brought to “Never You,” a belt-worthy ballad that made my musical-geek toes tingle.
The structure is unmistakably effective. The prison scenes are all shot with a dark palette with many shades of grey and blue and no brightest to speak of. These are a marked contrast to the musical scenes, drenched in all the saturated colors that a technicolor blockbuster can muster. It is a beautiful movie that does justice to all its antecedents, that expands the world of Molina’s imagination even while keeping it confined to a single movie. (For the record, the cheesy plot of that movie is actually interesting, and I enjoyed escaping to Aurora’s world.)
Unlike its stage predecessor, Kiss of the Spider Woman does not end with a kiss, even though the movie-within-the-movie does. It ends with a gratifying sequence of freedom not bound by Molina’s imagination, but by Valentin’s reality. And it is stronger for it.
So, why is my reaction so contrary to the general public’s dismissal of this? I have no idea. All I know is that I am grateful for entering this web spun by Kander and Ebb, by Richard Condon, and by Tonatiuh, Diego Luna, and Jennifer Lopez. And I couldn’t help getting a lump in my throat when, prior to the final credits, we see a dedication – “To Fred and Terrence and William and Chita.”
-- Brad Rudy (BKRudy@aol.com)