Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer’s last acting gig was as glamorous as they come — she toured the country starring as glittering cabaret queen Satine in “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.” Next up, something a bit more intimate and introspective, a role in the American Repertory Theater’s “Real Women Have Curves: The Musical.”

Gonzalez-Nacer can find overlaps between the two works — “They are shows that center around the underdog and an often overlooked group of people and they are both filled with amazing songs,” she told the Herald. But she also sees something unique in “Real Women Have Curves,” Dec. 6 to Jan. 21 at the ART.

The new musical has its bones in Josefina López’s 1990 play and the 2002 feature film of the same name (the film that started America Ferrera on her journey from unknown to icon). It’s the story of an 18-year-old Latina in Los Angeles in 1987 who is struggling to keep her dreams of college and a new life in New York from being crushed under the weight of familial and cultural expectations.

“It offers a perspective on topics like immigration in a new and exciting way,” Gonzalez-Nacer said. “ ‘Real Women Have Curves’ is a powerful and accessible window into the lives of these women and truly a celebration of Latina women with bodies and dreams in all shapes and sizes.”

Transforming films into Broadway blockbusters has become something of a cliche — see “Back to the Future,” “Beetlejuice,” a dozen Disney movies, and, well, “Moulin Rouge!” But this feels different. It feels closer to the ARTs other strange, tender, and wonderful adaptations. Recall how an ART team turned the songs from Alanis Morissette’s album “Jagged Little Pill” into an original narrative or how it partnered with writer Dave Malloy to build “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812” out of a 70-page chunk of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.”

“There is a very special energy with this show and with this group,” Gonzalez-Nacer said of the award-winning team of LatinX artists behind the production. “There has been a narrative that has reinforced the idea that us BIPOC folk are a niche market or this homogeneous monolithic group that is separate from the mainstream instead of the diverse demographic it is.”

“I think representation matters so much because, especially to young people, it changes their perception of what’s possible and how confident they feel taking up space in the world,” she continued. “For a young girl to see me or someone like me on stage, as a leading lady in a Broadway show, where there are not many female leads, let alone females of color as leads, allows such a girl to see that she can too do that one day and if not that, then anything else she can dream of.”

The dreams in “Real Women Have Curves” are dynamic, grounded in a place, time and culture, and also universal. This is something Gonzalez-Nacer sees reflected in the character she plays, Mrs. Wright. In the character, she sees many, even a bit of Satine.

“Mrs. Wright is the person in the show that everyone assumes is just a tyrannical boss lady but there is a twist in the show that you’ll have to come to the show to find out,” she said. “I loved playing Satine in ‘Moulin Rouge’ and telling her story and there is an interesting juxtaposition that I feel playing Mrs. Wright in ‘Real Women Have Curves.’ Satine was very much an anchor in the sea of spectacle and Mrs. Wright seemingly appears to rock the boat. Yet both women had to find ways to play a character to get ahead in life.”

For tickets and details, visit americanrepertorytheater.org

Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer. (Photo artist management)