A decade ago, Jennifer Nettles was casually scrolling online when she came across an article about female serial killers. She fell down a rabbit hole and discovered the story of Giulia Tofana, who, according to somewhat fuzzy history, allegedly poisoned her abusive husband in the 17th century in Sicily, and then went on supply potentially hundreds of women with her arsenic concoction to kill their badly behaving spouses.
“There wasn’t a ton about her online, like maybe two or three articles,” the Grammy and Emmy winner says, “It was known that she was a real person, but certain parts of her life and her death were unclear. So, there was enough to make me interested and inspired, but, thankfully, not too much to then hem me in to this very specific story.”
Over the years, the story continued to “haunt” the Sugarland singer, leading Nettles to begin writing a play about Tofana: “For a few years I would just touch on it here or there, but then when the pandemic hit and we were all locked down, I was like, ‘Now is the time. I still have all this creative energy. It’s got to go somewhere.’”
As she was writing, her friend, Broadway performer and producer Adam Zotovitch, asked Nettles, “Do you think Giulia wants to sing?” and Nettles enthusiastically replied, “I do! I think she wants to.” And with that, her play turned into a musical, with Nettles writing the music, lyrics and the book. She also stars as Giulia.
Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo, directed by Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman, will open Off Broadway Sunday (June 28) for a four-week run at New York City’s Perelman Performing Arts Center. In a conversation edited for length and clarity, Nettles talked to Billboard before rehearsals a few days before opening night.
Very few people write the book, music and lyrics for an original musical and star in it. Is it safe to say this became an all-encompassing thing for you?
Part of it was muse, part of it was obsession. I have called it for years my Great White Whale.
Okay, Herman Melville!
I wanted to try it first in what would seem like much more conventional ways: “Okay, I’m going to write the score, I’m going to write the lyrics. And then I’m going to collaborate with someone on the book,” but it just never worked out. And I’m so glad that it didn’t because this has been really, truly the most rewarding work I think that I’ve ever done, and I think it’s because it has been so all encompassing for so long.
When did it become clear to you that you could take this idea from conception to opening Sunday night at the Perelman?
Everybody usually loves their own work, right? So, of course, I loved it. But as we went through it, it evolved then from just being under my hands and in my mouth to “We need to hear this as it might exist in a world with other voices,” so we did several readings. It continued to really stand up. The response was very positive. I’m my harshest critic. If I didn’t think it was good, I wouldn’t be putting it out there, and the same thing goes for my producer, Adam Zotovitch. Adam took it to [Perelman] PAC’s Bill Rauch, who is the artistic director there and is just such a wonderful human being and just [won] a Tony as co-director of Cats: The Jellicle Ball. He checked it out and loved it. And so, it just evolved from there.
The Jellicle Ball is now on Broadway at the Broadhurst after starting at Perelman. Is that your goal?
It would have to be. What a dream that would be. But what we’ve been missing this entire time– a very key player in putting on a show– is the audience. We need to see what lands, what doesn’t. There are surprises all along the way. The audience is going to be really vital for what we’re learning, and that’s really what we want to do at PAC. We want to be able to get it on its feet for people to be able to see it and then see what we can learn to make it better.
How do you make Giulia, who was allegedly responsible for 600 deaths, a sympathetic creature?
The facts are sketchy. She confessed under torture, which we know is not the most reliable, but let’s just assume that the 600 is right. Regardless, when we talk about the hidden half of history, we see a lot of times it is women who have created their own paths and who have created their own agency in their lives. It’s not surprising that in this case a woman who took agency to protect herself and to protect the women in her community has become vilified. A lot of times, that is what history has enjoyed doing, because they haven’t wanted us to know what is possible. It’s much easier for them to keep the narrative in a certain way where we are subjugated and where we don’t get all these ideas of how to protect ourselves and we can form a community that makes us strong.
My favorite movie of all time is Gladiator, because I love that character. He never steers off his course once he accepts the hero’s call. When I saw that movie, I wanted to be that guy. Those are the kinds of characters that I relate to. So, where Giulia is concerned, this is the story of a warrior. She is someone who saw people who were in danger of losing their lives and she said, “Not on my watch.” That’s what a hero does.
So you do not see her as morally ambiguous at all?
I do. I don’t think that her course strayed. Much like if we’re using the metaphor of Gladiator, I think her aim was always true. There’s a song in this musical called “Something Holy, Something Broken,” and then there’s a line in another song where she says, “Have you ever done something wrong for all the right reasons?” There is a lot of moral ambiguity and we don’t like that. As humans, we find it much easier to say “there is black and there is white. There is wrong and there is right.” Well, sometimes there is, but there’s a lot more gray that makes us a lot more uncomfortable.
What’s been the biggest learning curve for you?
It is a huge process, especially for me in writing the book, the music and lyrics. For so long, it was just my baby. So then to take that and to hand it over to multiple someones and say, “Okay, how do you see this?” Every project that I’ve done — be it from songwriting, Sugarland, television, TV, and film — those are all collaborative forms. But I will say, theater is quite intimately collaborative on another level, because there are so many people who are at the top of their game who are bringing their experience and vision to a piece. There is a culture within it, too, in terms of the space that we offer each other in the collaboration, so that was new to me.
I was and am so grateful to have the collaborator in Mary Zimmerman. She is so confident in this piece. She’s so trusting of the process, so trusting of the actors and what they bring to the piece, and it has really been a joy to be able to work with her on this.
You’ve starred in Chicago and Waitress on Broadway. How did that help you?
It’s definitely helpful to have been in those productions to understand the rigors of the schedule and of the community and of the world and what it takes. But it’s a very different process to originate a role, because when I would come into Chicago or Waitress, everything already existed. I just had to learn it and bring what I brought to the table. This is a much more generative process because it’s all new. No one has done it before. That’s what makes it so thrilling, so risky and so exciting.
Have there been any points where you thought “I may have bitten off more than I could chew here?”
No, it’s been great, [but] fI was worried. I even reached out to Lin-Manuel Miranda and just said, “Friend, can I pick your brain on what does it mean to wear all of these hats at one time?” And he was very gracious and offered me his own experience, which I found valuable. You rely on your collaborators and on your team in a different way when you’re wearing all of these hats. I was curious about it before going in, like, “What is this going to be? Am I going to feel like run ragged? Am I going to feel pulled in 20 directions?” But it has ended up to be a really organic sort of dance.
What’s the best advice that Lin-Manuel Miranda gave you?
He said as you find your creative team, you have to trust them. That, for me, has been the best advice. And with this creative team that we have been so lucky to gather, that has been the case. I’ve been able to do that.
Regardless of what happens next, you have to be so proud of what you’re already accomplished, which so few people have done.
I have been so tender where I sometimes get overwhelmed. It’s a lot to process when I look up there and I see this whole world that’s been created from this seed of an idea. It very emotional for me… I’m just excited for what we’re about to learn when we get butts in the seats.