LOS ANGELES – Jennifer Lopez was a professional dancer long before she became a famous actress and pop singer, appearing in music videos and on stage with artistes such as New Kids On The Block, MC Hammer and Janet Jackson in the 1990s.

But her early jobs also included dancing for Broadway musicals and revues. And she got to dust off those skills for her first movie musical, Kiss Of The Spider Woman.

Opening in Singapore cinemas on Nov 6, the drama casts Lopez as the star of an old Hollywood musical whose plot is narrated by one prisoner to another to pass the time.

The film may have bombed when it opened in the United States in October, but critics praised Lopez’s performance, which some reviewers described as one of the best of her career.

For the 56-year-old American performer, the role was all her childhood dreams rolled into one.

“I’ve always wanted to do a musical. It’s been a dream of mine for so long,” Lopez said at a virtual press conference in early October.

Based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Argentinian writer Manuel Puig, as well as the 1992 stage musical it inspired, the movie was helmed by American writer-director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, 2006; Beauty And The Beast, 2017), who penned the script with Lopez in mind.

Her former husband, American actor and film-maker Ben Affleck, was a producer on the film.