‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ musical with Jennifer Lopez dazzles at Sundance

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A lavish, MGM-style musical is not typical Sundance Film Festival fare. But Sunday night Bill Condon brought such a creation — well, part of one — to Park City, Utah, with his adaptation of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” starring Jennifer Lopez.

Audiences broke out in spontaneous applause during the screening for Lopez’s song and dance numbers. She plays an old Hollywood screen siren in a movie-within-the movie. The packed Eccles Theater also gave Lopez, wearing a glittery spiderweb themed frock, a standing ovation after the show.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,” Lopez said.

The story, which revolves around the conversations between two cellmates in an Argentine prison, was first a novel by Manuel Puig in 1976 and has been adapted for stage and screen over the years. A 1985 film adaptation starred William Hurt and Raul Julia. Hurt won an Oscar for his performance. On Broadway, it won multiple Tony Awards.

Condon wrote and directed this new version, which is seeking a distributor. Diego Luna plays an imprisoned revolutionary Valentin Arregui, whose new cellmate Luis Molina (Tonatiuh) loves movies, celebrity and glamour and enthusiastically recounts the story of a favorite movie musical, called “Kiss of the Spider Woman” to Valentin, giving them and the audience a break from their bleak reality.

While the film has memorable moments of escapist spectacle, it also delves into serious topics of gender identity. Molina tells Valentin that they don’t feel like a man or a woman — which Valentin finds odd at first but grows to understand.

Before the screening, Condon said that one of the things the movie is about is “the attempt to bridge the incredible differences that separate us so often.” He quoted President Donald Trump’s recent remarks about two genders as official policy.

“That’s a sentiment I think you’ll see that the movie has a different point of view on,” said Condon.

After the film, the discussion of gender identity and tolerance continued. Tonatiuh said it was difficult growing up as a “femme queer Latin kid in a culture that doesn’t necessarily praise those things” and was told that it would be limiting in an acting career.

“When I got this material, I knew this person spiritually,” Tonatiuh said. I understood someone who felt like a loser in their own life and learns how to be the hero of their own story. I got to show the entire spectrum from feminine to masculine and everything in between.”

But most of all everyone was just excited to be in a real movie musical.

“I did write that line, ‘I pity people who hate musicals,’” Condon said. “All the things that movies can do can happen in a musical.”

Lopez said it was watching “West Side Story” every Thanksgiving on television that made her want to become a performer.

Condon, Lopez said through tears, “made my dreams come true.”

For more coverage of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/sundance-film-festival

Tonatiuh, a cast member in "Kiss of the Spider Woman," poses at the premiere of the film during the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Bill Condon, writer/director of "Kiss of the Spider Woman," poses at the premiere of the film during the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Jennifer Lopez, a cast member in "Kiss of the Spider Woman," looks down the press line at the premiere of the film during the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Bill Condon, right, writer/director of "Kiss of the Spider Woman," poses with cast members Tonatiuh, left, and Jennifer Lopez at the premiere of the film during the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Jennifer Lopez, right, and Tonatiuh, cast members in "Kiss of the Spider Woman," pose together at the premiere of the film during the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Jennifer Lopez, a cast member in "Kiss of the Spider Woman," poses at the premiere of the film during the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Jennifer Lopez, right, and Tonatiuh, cast members in "Kiss of the Spider Woman," pose together at the premiere of the film during the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Jennifer Lopez, a cast member in "Kiss of the Spider Woman," reacts to photographers at the premiere of the film during the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Jennifer Lopez, a cast member in "Kiss of the Spider Woman," poses at the premiere of the film during the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for the International Board of Peace overseeing the Israel-Hamas ceasefire on Wednesday reiterated longstanding demands that Hamas and other militant groups, calling them “not negotiable.”

Seven months ago, the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreed to by Israel and Hamas included disarmament as a key provision but little progress has been made. Negotiations have centered around details, some of which Mladenov referenced on Wednesdaay, about gun buybacks and small arms for law enforcement.

But Mladenov also said Hamas could have a role in post-war Gaza if they disarmed. “We are not asking Hamas to disappear as a political movement,” he said.

He criticized the group for consolidating power in parts of Gaza and said they were doing it “to squeeze better terms of a negotiation.”

The remarks conflict with some of Israel’s aims to destroy the militant group that has governed Gaza for two decades.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Nickolay Mladenov, the top diplomat overseeing the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal in Gaza, was in Jerusalem on Wednesday seeking to advance the ceasefire deal that Israel and Hamas agreed to more than seven months ago.

His appearance comes as efforts to advance the phased ceasefire have stalled, without much progress on its key tenets, including demilitarization and reconstruction. The truce envisioned Hamas handing over its weapons, Israeli forces withdrawing and rebuilding destroyed swaths of the coastal enclave after more than two years of war.

Instead, the seven months since the ceasefire have seen Israel and Hamas trade accusations of violations. Aid groups say Israel has not allowed the promised amount of aid in. Hamas has not disarmed and remains in control of roughly half the strip.

Israel has stepped up its attacks in Gaza in recent days, since the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, and many Palestinians fear a return of more airstrikes and full-scale war may be imminent.

Mladenov is a longtime U.N. diplomat and consultant who has also been a government minister in his home country, Bulgaria. Last year he was named high representative for Gaza for the President Donald Trump-led International Board of Peace designed to oversee post-war plans for the strip.

The Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas-led militants stormed Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 as hostages. Israel’s ensuing offensive has killed over 72,724 Palestinians, including at least 846 since a ceasefire took hold last October.

That’s according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the deaths were women and children. The figures by the ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

A Palestinian man carries water containers in Gaza City, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

FILE - United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov, attends a press conference at the (UNSCO) offices in Gaza City, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Adel Hana, File)