Kiss of the Spider Woman

Starring Jennifer Lopez, Kiss of the Spider Woman is a screen adaptation of a musical under the same name, originally run in Toronto in 1992, and later the West End and Broadway in 1993.

Written and directed by Bill Condon and having premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, it follows a story-within-a-story style plot where a prisoner in Argentina, to the annoyance of his cellmate, recounts stories centred around his favourite actor, Ingrid Luna.

Luna is of course the focus here, and straightaway we hear one of the musical’s most iconic tracks, “Where You Are” sung by her. The film is said to have thirteen numbers in total, according to Variety.

“Come and find me / hear my song”, Lopez intones, perhaps in allusion to the plot. The reverb on the word song contrasts sharply with the prison scene that follows, clearly setting up the subplot.

The lyrics then lean even more into the conceit: “you’ve got to learn how not to be where you are”. It’s a little on the nose, sure, but it carries an over-the-top charm befitting a classic musical. Indeed, we see where the lines between the musical and prison life begin to blur a bit: are they spotlights for catching prisoners, or stage lights?

Notice the stepwise key change when one prisoner says, “you have hundreds of movies… I have one” (1:04). This marks a change to a far more dramatic tune in a harmonic minor key. Notice also the change from minor to the parallel major key when Lopez begins to sing of the spider woman at 1:26. There’s also a fun bit of synchronicity at 1:35 when Lopez sings “you can scream” and indeed, we hear the prisoner screaming at the bars.

On the final note, there’s an unsettling slip into a Phrygian mode, where we hear the minor second at 1:48. A triplet in the percussion and a tubular bell rounds it out with a sense of finality and intrigue shortly afterwards.

Unsurprisingly for a trailer for what is in essence a classical musical (with a fun meta- narrative that looks to translate well to film), the editors’ choice here was largely to showcase a couple of numbers from the musical, uninterrupted—and it shows good range and contrast, too, with something more hopeful to start and a turn to drama at the end. The lyrics serve to help explain the plot, as well.

A few clever audiovisual edits aside, the songs are given top billing for your attention—as it should be.

“Kiss of the Spider Woman” reaches theatres October 10th.

— Curtis Perry