True seekers of fresh and tuneful musical theater should head downtown to the Perelman Performing Arts Center to encounter Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo. Not yet perfect but pleasurable, often artfully done and a lot of fun, the musical is written and composed by Jennifer Nettles, who delivers an exuberant performance as the heroic Giulia, whose brews slew many a miserable husband. Drawn from post-Renaissance history and told from a working woman’s perspective, Giulia is a robust musical drama regarding gender oppression, church/state corruption and murder done on a grand scale in Italy, circa 1653.
A compassionate soul, Giulia owns an apothecary shop where she dispenses wisdom, potions and the occasional abortifacient among friendly female customers. Guilia loves her teen daughter Vitoria (Naomi Serrano) from her first marriage and tolerates her drunken brute of a second husband (Matthew Amira) until during a desperate struggle she poisons him. Soon enough a red-robed Cardinale (Quentin Earl Darrington) and a rapacious Governatore (Christopher M. Ramirez), rivals for control of Palermo, invade Giulia’s world; the prelate secretly needing a cure for the pox, the politician lusting for that pretty Vitoria. By the second act, too many other lousy husbands have perished recently to blame such rampant mortality entirely on the plague, and Giulia finds herself deep in acqua calda.
Quite the musical melodrama, short on talk and expressive in two dozen songs, Giulia is driven hard and fast by an appealing score that presents a flavorful modern-day meld of rhythmic, often heavily percussive pop music, stretches of semi-rhymed dialogue and several inspirational anthems such as “The River,” which personifies a woman as a fluid, unstoppable force able to wear down anything: “So tell the mountains I am coming and watch them shiver,” sings Giulia, “I am the river.” Brightly orchestrated by Clan McCarthy with strings and woodwinds to aptly suggest an aura of the Renaissance, the music is arranged by Adam Rothenberg particularly for women’s voices and, my, how lovely they sound throughout the production.
[Read Roma Torre’s ★★★★★ review here.]
Speaking of women, as the musical often does, it’s a likely bet that women more than men will appreciate Giulia. That’s because the male characters here, excepting a kindly priest (Sam Simahk), are all depicted as total stinkers, while the female characters here, with the partial exception of a voracious Duchessa (Didi Romero), are all sweethearts. So, although the key bad guys are granted several resonant numbers, and both Darrington and Ramirez sing them monstrously well, some fellows in the audience may feel shamed about their distant ancestors. Currently running an overlong two hours and 40 minutes, the musical does not completely achieve its goal of celebrating one good woman’s triumph over a world of nasty men. Musical theater buffs, of course, will enjoy themselves afterwards parsing the promising musical’s various charms and shortcomings as they debate whether Guilia might venture Broadway.
For now, director Mary Zimmerman conjures a ravishing visual production that cloaks the musical’s weaknesses in sheer gorgeousness. Mellow Old Master-type lighting designed by T.J. Gerckens, beautiful period costumes designed in rich colors by Ana Kuzmanić that swirl with the vivacious movements of Austin McCormick’s natural choreography and the burnished medley of arched doorways, staircases and vistas provided by Daniel Ostling’s supple scenic design are deployed by Zimmerman to create striking stage pictures.
Nettles has written for herself a demanding if rewarding role as a valiant soul whose desire to protect her loved ones and friends in dangerous times somehow warps into mass murder. If that critical storytelling point in Guilia remains hazy, Nettles and her glowing score override the question by the warmth of her personality and the agreeable music she offers. The confidence and ebullience of the production’s excellent 13-member ensemble succeed in making Giulia certainly play like a hit show, even though it obviously remains a work in progress.
Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo opened July 10, 2026 at the Perelman Performing Arts Center and runs through August 2. Tickets and information: pacnyc.org
