Video: Jennifer Lopez Opens Up About Seeing Her First Broadway Show

A lifelong dream has come true for Jennifer Lopez, who is making her movie musical debut in the new film version of Kiss of the Spider Woman. Since childhood, the superstar has loved musical theater and, during a recent visit to Live with Kelly and Mark, recalled some of her early Broadway memories.

"I think the first Broadway show I ever went to was Song and Dance with Bernadette Peters," shared Lopez. "I remember that like it was yesterday. I still have 'Unexpected Song' in my head," she said. Peters won a Tony Award for her performance in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which premiered on Broadway in 1985. 

Lopez also explained how watching Broadway musicals as a kid created a yearning for performance in her young self. "When I would see shows, I would always think, 'Gosh, I want to be up there doing that.'" Also in the interview, she spoke about selling programs for The Phantom of the Opera outside the Majestic Theater as a dance student. Check it out now.

Directed by Oscar winner Bill Condon, Kiss Of The Spider Woman made its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and will arrive in theaters on October 10, 2025. Find out what critics thought of it here.

About Kiss of the Spider Woman

Bill Condon’s new adaptation is based on the acclaimed 1976 novel Kiss of the Spider Woman by Argentinian writer Manuel Puig and the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name by the multiple Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally (Master Class, Ragtime) and composer/lyricist team John Kander and Fred Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago). The original musical debuted on Broadway in 1993, going on to win seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score. Several of the performers also took home awards, including Chita Rivera.

Valentín (Diego Luna), a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina (Tonatiuh), a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez). Find out what critics thought of the movie here.

Written for the screen and directed by Bill Condon, this visually stunning and emotionally charged adaptation stars Emmy Award® nominee Diego Luna (Andor, Y tu mamá también), Tonatiuh (Carry On, Promised Land), and Emmy®, Grammy® and Golden Globes Award-nominated superstar Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers, Out of Sight), who also serves as an executive producer alongside Luna. Produced by Barry Josephson, p.g.a., Tom Kirdahy, p.g.a., and Greg Yolen, p.g.a.