It’s 1793 and Madame Marie Tussaud, 32, has just been commissioned by revolutionaries to make Queen Marie Antoinette’s death mask; the infamous Madame Deficit, as she was called in pamphlets, who had been guillotined a few weeks before her 38th birthday. Across the pond, in the plantation of Monticello in Virginia, 20-year-old Sally Hemings is living in slavery and allegedly as Thomas Jefferson’s mistress. Sally was also about to see how the future President agreed to free her brother James in order to keep a promise he’d made them years before when they served in his staff in France. To think that at one point in time these three famous women lived in the same geographical space is remarkable. To think that they might have actually known each other is the stuff great historical fiction is made of. Such is the case in the new musical Madame Infamy, by JP Vigliotti (Book) and Cardozie Jones & Sean Willis (Music and Lyrics), which explores this idea with deftness and bravado.

The show draws parallels between Marie Antoinette (a fantastic Briana Carlson-Goodman) and Sally Hemings (Bashirrah Creswell) and is narrated by Tussaud (Rachel Stern), who sees these two women as examples of strength and courage in a time when women weren’t even supposed to have opinions. Having left their homes during their early adolescence, both the Queen and Sally would go on to change the way in which their respective men saw the world, and while the actual effects of Hemings influence on Jefferson may not be part of historical records, it’s refreshing to see a work of dramatic fiction that empowers female characters without being obnoxiously didactic.

Directed by Carlos Armesto, who effectively makes use of the “world as a stage” concept (the choreography by Elisabetta Spuria perfectly shows how these women “crossed paths” at least figuratively), Madame Infamy is compelling to see and also quite a lot of fun. If it sometimes seems confused as to what its overall tone will be, there’s no denying numbers like “Chocolate”, (in which Q Smith’s Comtesse teaches Marie Antoinette how to seduce the King through sweets) will have you grinning from ear to ear. With an overall great ensemble (Xalvador Tin-Bradbury is especially good as the conniving Count Mercy) and ideas too complex to develop in two hours, the show leaves you wanting more, and that’s more than you can say for most historical fiction.

Madame Infamy is playing as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival.  For more on NYMF productions, click here.