Kiss of the Spider Woman – (2025)
Kiss of the Spider Woman is a 2025 American musical drama film written for the screen and directed by Bill Condon. Based on the stage musical by Terrence McNally, John Kander, and Fred Ebb, it is the second film adaptation of the 1976 novel by Argentine author Manuel Puig, following the 1985 Brazilian-American adaptation. Jennifer Lopez stars in the titular role, alongside Diego Luna and Tonatiuh.
Kiss of the Spider Woman premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2025, where it received generally positive reviews from critics. It is set to be released theatrically in the United States on October 10, 2025, by Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment.
Plot
Luis Alberto Molina, a gay window dresser, is in prison in Argentina, serving his third year of an eight-year sentence for corrupting a minor. He lives in a fantasy world to flee the prison life, the torture, fear and humiliation. His fantasies turn mostly around movies, particularly around a vampy diva, Aurora. He loves her in all roles, but one role scares him: the spider woman, who kills with her kiss.
One day, a new man is brought into his cell: Valentin Arregui Paz, a Marxist revolutionary, already in a bad state of health after torture. Molina cares for him and tells him of Aurora. But Valentin can’t stand Molina and his theatrical fantasies and draws a line on the floor to stop Molina from coming nearer to him. Molina, however, continues talking, mostly to block out the cries of the tortured prisoners, about Aurora and his mother. Valentin at last tells Molina that he (Valentin) is in love with a girl named Marta.
Molina tells Valentin about a man he loves, a waiter named Gabriel, who does not return his feelings, and the two men cautiously begin to bond. Only a short while afterwards, Molina gets hallucinations and cramps after knowingly eating poisoned food intended for Valentin. He is brought to the hospital ward, talking to his mother and to the Spider Woman. As Molina is brought back, Valentin starts suffering from the same symptoms, also from poisoned food. Molina is afraid that Valentin will be given substances that might make him talk and so protects Valentin from being taken to the hospital. As Molina nurses him, Valentin asks him to tell him about his movies. Molina is happy to do so; Valentin also shares his fantasies and hopes with Molina.
Details
Run Time – 128 Min
Rotten Tomatoes – All Critics – 81% All Audience – 0% (as Sept 2025)
Cast
- Jennifer Lopez as Ingrid Luna/Aurora/The Spider Woman
- Diego Luna as Valentin Arregui/Armando
- Tonatiuh as Luis Molina/Kendall Nesbitt
- Tony Dovolani as Johnny Desiderio
- Josefina Scaglione as Marta
- Bruno Bichir as The Warden
- Aline Mayagoitia as Paulina
- Kevin Michael Brennan as Shady Mocambo Man
- Thomas Canestraro as Desiderio’s Henchman
- Eduardo Ramos as Armando
- David Turner as Kendall Nesbitt
- Lynn Favin as Villager
- Odain Watson as Villager
Production
Development and Casting
Writer/director Bill Condon and producers Barry Josephson, Tom Kirdahy and Greg Yolen
In December 2023, Jennifer Lopez was announced to star as Ingrid Luna in a film adaptation of the musical with Bill Condon directing from his own screenplay. The independently financed production was executive produced by Lopez, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Benny Medina through their Nuyorican Productions banner, while Barry Josephson, Tom Kirdahy and Greg Yolen served as producers. Choreographer Sergio Trujillo and co-choreographer Brandon Bieber created the dance sequences throughout. Christopher Scott choreographed “Gimme Love”. Upon the announcement, a casting call opened for an unknown to play the role of Molina.
In March 2024, dancer Tony Dovolani announced on his Instagram page that he had joined the cast as mob boss Johnny Desiderio. In April, it was announced that Diego Luna and Tonatiuh had joined the cast as Valentin Arregui and Luis Molina, with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon boarding the project as executive producers through the Artists Equity banner. Luna also served as an executive producer. Lopez and Luna were Condon’s “first and only” choices for their roles, while Tonatiuh was selected from hundreds of actors who auditioned.
Colleen Atwood served as costume designer. Composer and pianist Sam Davis wrote the incidental underscore for the dialogue scenes, marking his film scoring debut after collaborating with Condon as the dance music arranger for Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast (2017).
Filming
On March 20, 2024, Lopez announced that production on the film had begun, with the intention to have a fast turnaround time so she can launch her This Is Me… Live tour on June 26, which was later cancelled on May 31. Principal photography began in New Jersey on March 21, 2024.On May 10, Lopez confirmed on Live with Kelly and Mark that she completed filming on her scenes and that she lost weight for the role of Aurora, describing the shoot as “equal parts exhilarating and exhausting”. Production wrapped on June 16, 2024.
The film is dedicated to the memories of Ebb (who died in 2004), McNally (who died in 2020 from COVID-19) and Chita Rivera (who originated the title role on stage and died in 2024) as well as the original actor who played Molina in the 1985 film William Hurt (who died in 2022).
Musical Numbers
- Prologue – Orchestra
- Her Name Is Aurora (Staff) – Ensemble
- I Will Dance Alone – Aurora and Molina
- Her Name Is Aurora (Gala) – Aurora and Ensemble
- An Everyday Man – Aurora
- She’s a Woman – Molina
- Where You Are – Aurora and Ensemble
- Dear One (Querido) – Federico Salles and Alejandro Ernesto Balbis Ortíz
- I Do Miracles – Aurora
- A Visit – Spider Woman and Molina
- Gimme Love – Aurora, Molina and Aurora’s Men
- Never You – Aurora
- Kiss of the Spider Woman – Spider Woman
- Only in the Movies – Molina and the People in His Life
Kiss of the Spider Woman | 1993 Tony Awards – Chita Rivera
Stage-to-Screen Changes
In adapting the musical to the screen, Condon cited Bob Fosse’s 1972 film adaptation of another Kander and Ebb musical, Cabaret, as a source of inspiration. This resulted in cutting almost every song set in reality at the prison where Molina and Arregui are held (including “Dressing Them Up,” “Over the Wall” and “The Day After That”) and only keeping the ones set in the “fantasies” Molina comes up with (except for “And the Moon Grows Dimmer,” “Come” and “Anything for Him”) in order to create a stark contrast between the grittiness of prison life in Argentina during the Dirty War and the Technicolor lavishness and beauty of a classic MGM musical film. As a result, the aspect ratio also shifts between the 1.85∶1 format during the prison scenes and the 1.33∶1 format during the fantasy sequences. In addition, three new songs were written for the film by John Kander with existing additional lyrical material by Fred Ebb, entitled “I Will Dance Alone”, “Never You” and “An Everyday Man” (which was actually used in the original, very different 1990 premiere production of the musical in Purchase, New York).
Release and Marketing
Kiss of the Spider Woman – scheduled to be released in the United States on October 10, 2025. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2025, marking Condon’s first film premiere at the festival since Gods and Monsters (1998), and received a standing ovation from the audience, which reportedly left Lopez in tears. It later held additional screenings at the festival, with all showings of the film being sold-out in advance of the premiere. In February 2025, AGC Studios boarded onto the film to handle international sales to buyers at the 2025 European Film Market, while William Morris Endeavor and CAA Media Finance will handle U.S. sales. In March 2025, Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment were reportedly in final talks to acquire North American distribution rights to the film; the deal closed not long after, with Mickey Liddell joining the executive producing team, alongside plans for a wide theatrical awards season release sometime in fall that year. Searchlight Pictures and Mubi also expressed interest in the rights a month prior to Lionsgate’s purchase. It held its international premiere as the closing night film of the 78th Locarno Film Festival on August 16, 2025, and will hold its Canadian premiere as the closing night film of the 2025 Atlantic International Film Festival on September 17, 2025.
Marketing
The film’s promotional campaign launched on June 5, 2025, with the release of the teaser trailer. The following day, Lopez made an appearance at the 2025 WorldPride celebration in Washington, D.C. to share an exclusive clip from the film and perform the title song live for the first time. The official trailer was released on August 20, 2025, alongside the poster. Lopez’s rendition of the title song was released as the lead single off the film’s soundtrack album on September 5, 2025 by Lakeshore Records.
Reception
Critical Response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of 40 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website’s consensus reads: “Weaving a visually sumptuous web of musical intrigue, Kiss of the Spider Woman showcases beauty in tragedy through wondrous performances by Jennifer Lopez, Tonatiuh Elizarraraz and Diego Luna.” Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating “mixed or average” reviews.
Fionnuala Halligan of Screendaily lamented that despite the “committed” and “sincere” cast, “it’s disappointing that what they are peddling has become so distorted”. Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood wrote about a “stunning new film adaptation” in which Condon demonstrates that the musical genre is “still fresh and alive and relevant even on the budget of independent filmmaking”. Aisha Harris of NPR wrote “Luna and Lopez are great, but this is Tonatiuh’s movie — he takes a role that could easily be a caricature of queer flamboyance and pathos, and grounds it with depth and soul.” Kevin Fallon of The Daily Beast wrote “Condon confirms that he’s simply unrivaled when it comes to directing movie musicals, and the three leads deliver a trifecta of tour de forces.”
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter delivered as a bottom line the following assessment: “entertaining, even if it soars only intermittently”. Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire gave the film a ‘C+’ rating, wondering what’s a “star-making performance (Tonatiuh’s) when the package surrounding the actor is otherwise so ordinary and un-cosmic?” Peter Debruge of Variety praised how Condon gives Tonatiuh his Jennifer Hudson moment in “She’s a Woman”.
Awards
| Organization | Year | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | . |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locarno Film Festival | August 17, 2025 | Prix du public UBS | Kiss of the Spider Woman | Nominated | |
| Savannah Film Festival | November 1, 2025 | Virtuoso Award | Jennifer Lopez | Won |
