Stage Adaptation of Like Water for Chocolate, Featuring Music by La Santa Cecilia, in the Works

Laura Esquivel's 1989 best-selling novel Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua Para Chocolate) is being adapted for the stage. Featuring original music by the Grammy Award-winning Latin group La Santa Cecilia (which is composed of vocalist Marisol "La Marisoul" Hernandez, accordionist and requinto player Jose "Pepe" Carlos, bassist Alex Bendaña and percussionist Miguel "Oso" Ramirez), Like Water for Chocolate will have lyrics by the group and Pulitzer Prize-winning scribe Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights, Water by the Spoonful) and a book by Lisa Loomer. Tony winner Michael Mayer is set to direct.

Like Water For Chocolate centers on a battle between familial obligation and romantic desire in turn of-the-century Mexico. This fable of tradition, rebellion, and uncontrollable passions has sold millions of copies around the world and has been published in 45 different languages. In 1993, it was adapted into an Award-winning film, which became the highest-grossing foreign-language film released in the United States and Canada at the time.

“The musical Like Water for Chocolate waited until a group of extraordinary dreamers came together," Esquivel said in a statement. "La Santa Cecilia and Quiara Alegría Hudes, Lisa Loomer and Michael Mayer, and [producers] Tom Hulce and Ira Pittelman, the ideal group to give voice to the culture that runs through our veins and waited years to be seen and heard. My thanks to all of you for dreaming the dream of a dream.”

La Santa Cecilia will premiere a section of never-before-heard music from the musical during ¡Viva Broadway! Hear Our Voices on October 1. More information, including casting and production timeline, will be announced at a later date.