Ten years ago, Jennifer Nettles was casually scrolling online when she came across an article about a female serial killer. She fell down the rabbit hole and discovered Julia Tofana’s story. According to a somewhat vague history, she is said to have poisoned her abusive husband in Sicily in the 17th century, and then went on to supply arsenic concoctions to perhaps hundreds of women to murder their misbehaving spouses.
“There were very few articles about her online, just a couple of articles,” says the Grammy and Emmy Award winner. “It was known that she was a real person, but certain parts of her life and death were obscure. So there was enough to interest and inspire me, but thankfully not enough to draw me into this very specific story.”
For years, this story continued to “haunt” the Sugarland singer, and Nettles began writing a play about Tofana. “For a few years, I only touched on it here and there, but when the pandemic hit and everyone went into lockdown, I thought, ‘This is the time. I still have all this creative energy. It has to go somewhere.'”
While writing, her friend Adam Zotovich, a Broadway performer and producer, asked Nettles, “Does Julia want to sing?” Nettles replied enthusiastically, “I think so! I think she would like that too.” And her play became a musical, with Nettles writing the music, lyrics, and book. She also appears as Julia.
Julia: The Venom Queen of Palermo, directed by Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman, opens off-Broadway on Sunday (June 28) and will run for four weeks at New York City’s Perelman Performing Arts Center. In a conversation edited for length and clarity, Nettles told Billboard before rehearsals a few days before opening night.
Few people write the book, music, lyrics and star in an original musical. Is it safe to say this has become all-encompassing for you?
Part of it was the muse and part of it was an obsession. I’ve been calling it the great Moby Dick for years.
Yes, Herman Melville!
At first, I wanted to try something more traditional. I said, “Okay, I’m going to write the score, I’m going to write the lyrics, and then I’m going to co-write the book with someone,” but it didn’t work out at all. And I’m really glad that didn’t happen. Because this was really, really the most rewarding job I’ve ever had. And I think that’s because it’s been all-encompassing for so long.
When did it become clear that you could take this idea from concept to opening at Perelman on Sunday night?
Everyone loves their job, right? So, of course I liked it. But as we went through it, it evolved from just being under my hand or in my mouth to, “I need to hear this because it might exist in a world where other voices exist,” and we did several readings. I really kept standing. The reaction was very positive. I’m my harshest critic. If I don’t think it’s good, I’m not going to put it out there. The same goes for producer Adam Zotovich. Adam took it with him, [Perelman] PAC’s Bill Rausch is our artistic director, a truly wonderful human being, and a righteous man. [won] Tony co-directed Cats: The Jellicle Ball. He checked it out and liked it. And it evolved from there.
Jellicle Ball got its start at the Perelman and is now on Broadway at the Broadhurst. Is that your goal?
It must be so. What a dream that would be! But what we’ve been missing all along is the audience, which plays such an important role in putting on a show. You have to see what lands and what doesn’t. There are surprises along the way. Audiences are so important to what we’re learning, and that’s what we really want to do at PAC. We want to be able to get it off the ground so people can look at it and see what they can learn to make it better.
How can Julia, who is said to have caused the deaths of 600 people, be made into a sympathetic figure?
The facts are sketchy. She confessed under torture, which I know isn’t the most reliable, but let’s assume 600 is correct. In any case, when we talk about the hidden half of history, we often find that it is women who have carved out their own path and forged their own agency in life. In this case, it is not surprising that a woman who acted to protect herself and the women in her community was vilified. History has often had fun with it. Because they didn’t want us to know what was possible. It’s much easier for them to keep the narrative in a certain way that we are subjugated, that we don’t have all the ideas of how to protect ourselves, and that we can form communities that make us stronger.
My favorite movie of all time is “Gladiator.” Because I love that character. Once the hero accepts his call, he never deviates from his path. When I saw that movie, I wanted to be that person. I empathize with these characters. So when it comes to Julia, this is a warrior’s story. She was someone who saw people in danger of losing their lives and said, “It’s not on my watch.” That’s what heroes do.
So you don’t think of her as morally ambiguous at all?
i will do it. I don’t think her path has been deviated. I think her purpose was always true, just like the gladiator metaphor. The musical has a song called “Something Holy, Something Broken,” and another song has the line “Have you ever done something wrong for a good reason?” There’s a lot of moral ambiguity, and we don’t like that. We humans find it much easier to say, “There’s black and there’s white. Some are wrong and some are right.” Well, sometimes that’s the case, but there are many more unpleasant shades of gray.
What was the biggest learning curve for you?
Writing books, music, and lyrics is a big process, especially for me. For a long time, it was just my baby. So you take that and give it to multiple people and say, “Okay, what do you think of this?” All the projects I’ve done, whether it’s songwriting, Sugarland, television, television, film, etc., are all collaborative formats. But I will say that theater is a very intimate collaboration on another level. Because there are a lot of people who are at the top because they bring their own experience and vision to their work. There was also a culture of giving each other space in collaboration, which was new to me.
I remain grateful to have had a collaborator in Mary Zimmerman. She is very confident in this work. She really believes in the process and the actors and what they bring to the production, and it was a real pleasure to work with her on this production.
You starred in “Chicago” and “Waitress” on Broadway. How did it help you?
Participating in these works definitely helps me understand the harshness of the schedule, the harshness of the community, the harshness of the world, and what it takes. However, the process of creating a role is completely different. Because when I joined Chicago and Waitress, everything already existed. I just learned it and brought what I brought to the table. This is all new, so it’s a more generative process. No one has ever done it before. That’s what makes it so thrilling, so risky, so exciting.
Was there ever a point where you thought, “I might have bitten off more than I could chew here”?
No, it was wonderful. [but] f I was worried. I reached out to Lin-Manuel Miranda and just said, “Friend, can you tell me what it means to wear all these hats at once?” And he was very kind and offered me his own experience. That was valuable to me. Wearing these hats forces you to rely on your collaborators and team in a different way. Before I joined, I was curious, like, “What is this going to be like? Will it feel like I’m running ragged? Will I feel like I’m being pulled in 20 directions?” But in the end, it turned out to be a really organic dance.
What is the best advice Lin-Manuel Miranda gave you?
He said that when finding a creative team, you have to trust them. That was the best advice for me. And with this creative team we’ve assembled, that’s exactly the case. Now you can do that.
Regardless of what happens next, you should be proud of what you have already achieved, which very few people have achieved.
I’m a very sweet person, so sometimes I get overwhelmed. When you look up there, you see this whole world that was created from this seed of an idea, and there’s a lot to process. It’s very emotional for me…I’m excited about what we’re going to learn when I hit the seat with a cigarette butt.
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