There was an intel based vm left over from when I had inadvertently downloaded the wrong Ubuntu desktop image (amd64).  (Ubuntu desktop images for ARM have to come from their Nightly Build site.)  Once I remove that I could create a new VM using the Ubuntu ARM desktop image.

It should have showed me which VMs were available instead of just giving me that black screen with the play icon.  That's just bad UX.

After creating a VM with the Ubuntu desktop for ARM image I realized that it was unusable.  The software I need isn't available for Ubuntu running on ARM.  Ubuntu will be a non-starter on Mac M1 until software is available for it.