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Jennifer Nettles and company in
Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo.
Credit: Andy Henderson |
You really have to admire author-actress Jennifer Nettles. In addition to playing the title role, the Grammy-winning vocalist of the duo Sugarland wrote the songs and book for the new musical Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo, now at the Perelman Performing Arts Center. She (or the producers) enlisted Tony-winner Mary Zimmerman to direct. Plus the basic idea is intriguing. The plot is based on a true story of a 17th-century Italian female apothecary who aided the women of her community by poisoning several abusive husbands including her own. Nettles creates a proto-feminist heroine, sort of a socially progressive Sweeney Todd. Unfortunately, while there are several entertaining elements, Giulia doesn’t quite come together for a satisfying whole. Nettles’ book is earnest in its desire to create a plucky protagonist challenging an oppressive patriarchy represented by a hypocritical cardinal (powerful Quentin Earl Darrington) and a villainous civil governor (mustache-twirling Christopher M. Ramirez). But Nettles doesn’t seem to be able to make up her mind as to what kind of show this is. The tone is mostly deadly serious, but switches to dark humor halfway through the first act, but then switches to girl-power tract as Giulia gleefully massacres all the nasty men who assault their spouses and sets up a women’s talk therapy session in her shop. The show opens like Pippin with a commedia dell’arte troupe performing a scene-setting intro number led by an overplaying Bre Jackson. But then the play-within-a-play concept is dropped.
Nettles’ score is a lively mix of rock, pop, and rap with several Hamilton-like contemporary riffs and soaring “I want” songs. But her lyrics are obvious and often filled with off-rhymes such as “invite” and “like,” “expect” and “edge.” The performances are vocally impressive with plenty of sustained high notes, but everyone’s dramatic limning is so over the top, it’s hard to sympathize with or believe in most of the characters. Nettles does her best to bring bring shading to Giulia’s motivations and she delivers the singing goods. Naomi Serrano is a stand-out as her naive daughter Vitoria, skillfully morphing from innocent teenager to avenging angel.
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Didi Romero and Andrew Kober in
Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo
Credit: Andy Henderson |
Zimmerman’s direction is surprisingly pedestrian, given her imaginative Tony-winning work on her own adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphosis. There are cleverly staged moments when Giulia and friends have to hide the body of a victim, but the only really out-of-the-box direction comes late in the second act. Up to this point, Zimmerman had employed set designer Daniel Ostling’s three large cabinets with pocket doors to provide for shifting environments. Here, one of the cabinets opens to reveal the plotting Duchesse (Didi Romero) in bed with her depreciate, sleeping husband, plotting to get Giulia to help her do him in. Both actors are standing up, creating the illusion we are viewing them from the ceiling. More of this innovative stagecraft would have gone a long way to sell the repetitive story. Choreographer Austin McCormick does have an opportunity to let loose in one number where an exuberantly evil Romero as the conniving Duchessa expounds on her wickedness and resembles Madonna in her “Vogue" number from the 1990 MTV Awards. Otherwise, the dancing is fairly routine. Kudos, though to Ana Kuzmanic’s colorful period costumes.
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Jennifer Nettles and Naomi Serrano
in Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palmero.
Credit: Andy Henderson |
Giulia has its share of feel-good power ballads, but Harold Prince, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler were more successful in striking the right balance between wry graveyard humor, gory horror and restrained melodrama with Sweeney Todd.
July 10—Aug. 2. Perelman Performing Arts Center, 251 Fulton St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 20 mins. including intermission. pacnyc.org.
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