Tony First-Timers: Justina Machado's Nomination for Real Women Have Curves Proves That 'Dreams Don't Have an Expiration Date'

You might know Justina Machado best for her TV roles: Vanessa Diaz on the popular HBO series Six Feet Under or Penelope Alvarez on One Day at a Time. But now that she’s turned Broadway’s head as matriarch Carmen García in Real Women Have Curves, she can confess something: “It was always my dream to originate a role in a musical and to be nominated for a Tony. I can say that now.”

Jinxing her odds is no risk anymore. Machado is one of this year’s Featured Actress in a Musical nominees, and for a role that poetically clasps hands with the start of her career. “I played the part of Ana at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago,” Machado says, referring to the 1993 world premiere of Josefina López’s original play Real Women Have Curves, which predated the movie that made it a famous title. “It's where I got my AEA card, actually.”

Ana, now played in the musical by Tatianna Córdoba, is the ambitious young adult (and her family’s only documented American citizen) who dreams of chasing a life that’s bigger than the textile factory her family operates in East L.A. Machado, who got her Equity card inhabiting that restless spirit, now has a Tony nomination for playing her mother, a woman, who, Machado says, “is stuck in her old-school ways; who made a new life when they came over from Mexico to the States, but is scared to let her daughter go.”

Of course, fear and love go hand in hand. “She's very flawed, but she's a combination of every woman I've ever had in my life: My abuela, my mother, my tías. Those women that I grew up with that can sometimes not say the right things, but they would do anything for you.” As Ana says in the musical, “She's just somebody who keeps the mole flowing.”

Machado considers the story a universal one—“an immigrant story is universal,” she says—but the outstretched arm to Latinx audiences has been especially meaningful to her. “They feel seen. They feel heard. They feel like they're not alone because of everything that's happening, especially in the Latino world.”

The women in the audience also get a special, liberating jolt from the title number—a sequence where bodies are bared without apology. “That's what makes this project so beautiful—to see all these incredible, strong Latinas up there, all different body shapes, all in their power.” Machado’s own commanding physical presence is included in that statement. “Of course, there are days when I wish it was 10 years ago or 15 years ago, just for the stamina.” The athletic rigor of a Broadway schedule is not for the faint of heart. “But I wouldn't have the grounded-ness. I feel very grounded.”

She adds, “It just shows you that dreams don't have an expiration date. We hear it all the time, but this is the truth.”

GET TO KNOW THE TONY FIRST-TIMERS
Left to Right: SADIE SINK (John Proctor is the Villain) | JUSTINA MACHADO (Real Women Have Curves) | DARREN CRISS (Maybe Happy Ending) | CONRAD RICAMORA (Oh, Mary!) | NICOLE SCHERZINGER (Sunset Boulevard) | JEB BROWN (Dead Outlaw)

Watch the June 4 episode of The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal, highlighting all six of our first-time Tony nominees, and flip through the complete gallery of photos from our exclusive Broadway.com photo shoot.

The Broadway Show Credits: Directed by Zack R. Smith | Producers: Paul Wontorek and Beth Stevens | Senior Producers: Caitlin Moynihan and Lindsey Sullivan | Videographers: Eddie Lebron, Nick Shakra, and Ryan Windess
Photo Credits: Photography by Emilio Madrid | Photo Assistants: Eric Hodgman, Farley Schilling and Leandra Worth | Location: Corner Studio
Glam Credits: Hair styling by Tameeka Lee Walker
Styling Credits: Styling: Emma Pritchard  | Styling Assistant: Rina Andreatta | Black Blazer: Silk Laundry  | White Blouse: Adeyla  | Top and pants: Meilleur Moment  | Cumberbund: The Tie Bar  | Lapel Pin: Dauphines of New York  | Earrings: Alex Monroe  | Shoes: Marion Parke