queen of versailles Opened on Broadway, and reviews are overwhelmingly negative.
Critics are mocking everything from its concept and message to its songs, structure and runtime (about 3 hours including intermission). Few theater fans would have predicted such an intense hit for a musical that reunites two Broadway veterans who contributed Wicked Taking a smash hit from stage to screen: composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz and actress Kristin Chenoweth.
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To be honest, I have seen it queen of versailles Musically, I’m even more confused by the pan shower, because it’s so much fun. But not only this. It is a shameless exploration of the American pursuit of happiness through obscene wealth. And far from being just a finger-wagging cautionary tale, it becomes a hilarious and thought-provoking commentary not only on Americans’ desperate desire to have more, but also on our squeamishness when we see the rich fail.
Credit: Juliet Cervantes
On the shoulders of the beautiful powerhouse named Chenoweth, queen of versailles It’s a bold and thrilling musical that had me laughing in Act 1 and laughing in Act 2, leaving my mind spinning as the curtain rose. So, what does this unique production mean?
queen of versailles Goes beyond its eponymous point of inspiration.
Credit: Juliet Cervantes
It has been home to many plays and musicals inspired by Broadway and Off-Broadway films. Now, you can see Death Becomes Her, The Outsiders, Beetlejuice, Heathers: The Musical, Romy and Michelle: The Musical, Or The Exorcist: The Rock Musical. However, it is rare for a film to be the inspiration for a musical.
queen of versailles It is based on Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 documentary about former beauty pageant winner Jackie Siegel (Chenoweth), who became the trophy wife of “timeshare king” David Siegel (played on stage by F. Murray Abraham), who was 30 years her senior and extremely wealthy. Together, they dreamed of rebuilding the Palace of Versailles in Central Florida. However, the Great Recession of 2008 puts a halt to their plans, putting their stake at risk and placing a deep strain on their relationship.
While the film ends with the Versailles House being incomplete and the Seagulls trying to save it from sale or foreclosure, the musical follows Jackie and her family through the film’s Sundance premiere and her subsequent reality-TV stardom (such as her appearance on celebrity wife swappingWhile their 2022 show, The Queen of Versailles reigns againNot directly mentioned, the pink, glittery fashions she loved there, as well as her ongoing obsession with finishing Versailles despite great personal tragedy, make it into Act 2. However, Jackie and her family get a major Broadway musical makeover.
Kristin Chenoweth is the undisputed star Queen of Versailles.
Credit: Juliet Cervantes
Re-imagined for Broadway, Jackie’s never-say-die attitude translates to a steadfast and girlish resilience in Chenoweth’s performance. The first act delves deeper into Jackie’s blue-collar roots (“Champagne Dreams”) and less-than-glamorous jobs (“Keep on Thrustin'”), including waitressing at Red Lobster and washing corpses for an old people’s home. Chenoweth tackles these aspects with bouncy showmanship, revealing that Jackie uses a smile as a shield to get through tough times, including an abusive marriage with her first husband (“Mrs. Florida”).
However, when Jackie is singing with zero self-awareness about her grand ambitions to become queen “like Marie Antoinette,” Chenoweth is at her best. As she did as Glinda in “Popular,” Chenoweth is a force of irrepressible whimsy as she twirls and slides around the stage in fiery sequined mini-dresses and heels. Sometimes, she carries a fluffy white Pomeranian (an ode to the real Seagull’s pet flock). At other times, she will make grand gestures at ridiculous little things that Jackie has spent a lot of money on (in real life too).
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No matter how cheesy or absurd the moment, Chenoweth is so charming that you may be charmed by her sales pitch of more, more, more. In the song (Schwartz) and book (by Lindsay Ferentino), Jackie talks about coming from immigrant grandparents, growing up in a small town, and just wanting to. More For his children. It’s a story echoed, less ridiculously, in the experience of Seagal’s immigrant nanny Sophia Flores (a heart-wrenching Melody Butui). But when is enough?
Jackie is such a larger-than-life personality that she feels more like a satirist than a flesh-and-blood person. But queen of versailles Balances her anti-heroine’s intense energy, insatiable desires, and tenacious (and toxic) positivity with her two teenage daughters.
Nina White and Tatum’s Grace Hopkins are fantastic as the princesses of Versailles.
Credit: Juliet Cervantes
While all nine of Seagal’s children get some camera time in the documentary, the musical cleverly keeps most of them off the stage. Instead, the focus narrows to Jackie’s eldest, Victoria (Nina White), and Jackie’s niece/adopted daughter, Jonquil (Tatum Grace Hopkins), who grew up in extreme poverty and was forced into a life of distorted luxury (“I could get used to it.”).
Through these two girls, queen of versailles Explores in depth topics that were only lightly touched upon in the film. Self-conscious Victoria looks up to her mother and Jackie’s beauty queen friends and realizes she is falling short of their superficial but stringent standards (“Pretty Vince”). Feeling estranged from their parents, the two girls focus more on their failing financial situation rather than parenting, bonding over a silly song, “Pawn for a Dead Lizard”. But inside the lizard funeral, the girls themselves seem like pets abandoned to the whims of a fickle owner. As the second act grows darker, these two delve into the heartache, where Jackie can’t help but reach for the silver lining.
In it, Jackie becomes a tragic figure like King Lear or Anna Nicole Smith. She hoped that her wealth would protect her children from the harsh realities she knew growing up, whether it was sadness, heartbreak, or abuse. But in building his palace, he did not create a safe place for his children. His endless pursuit towards the dream cost him more than he could have imagined. And in the end, she is a victim of her own desires, doomed to have her wish fulfilled.
queen of versailles is a compelling commentary on American culture.
Credit: Juliet Cervantes
In music, Jackie is influenced by the elegant richness seen in the TV show Lifestyle of the rich and famous Or DynastyBut his style is completely new, Covered in bubble-gum pink sequins, with large, implanted breasts, towering, stiletto heels, long blonde hair, and a bejeweled necklace that reads “Queen of Versailles,” she’s undeniably tactful, feeding her huge family with super-sized McDonald’s orders, She’s a trophy wife who threw herself into reality TV to maintain her fortune through dubious fame; The kind of rich woman America loves to hate, Hey, Bravo has created a collection of reality shows about our obsession with watching the rich and the tasteless,
However, through the storyline of Jackie’s daughters, the audience comes to think of queen of versailles There is a push towards empathy not found in the 2012 documentary. The music tempts us to join in on the guilty pleasure of watching Jackie and her absurd displays of wealth in Act 1. But with Act 2, we are led to consider what he has lost to make up for everything he has gained. What’s even sadder is that we’re given better information about his life than we are about the character. (This is also true of the documentary, in which she tells the filmmakers on camera that the film can teach her things about her life and marriage that her husband won’t share with her.)
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Within the show, Schwartz employs a curious (and sometimes wobbly) device: scenes in which members of the French aristocracy (King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the unnamed hangers-on) sing about the clever trick of American millionaires who can become self-proclaimed royalty without fear of being violently overthrown. This cheeky historical angle gets fewer laughs than its allusions to the Trump administration’s wastefulness. (The lines about the Versailles ballroom being finished, but the East Wing being ruined, drew a lot of laughter and jeers from the audience when I attended.) However, this comparison creates a broader context for Jackie’s absurdities.
Credit: Juliet Cervantes
However, beyond that, queen of versailles Also offers something extraordinary for cheap seats. Musicalizing the making of the documentary, a large TV screen occasionally presents supporting imagery or close-ups of some of Chenoweth’s fascinating moments. Even from the balcony there’s a great view of the screen showing this Broadway icon baring her all. So, you don’t have to sit in expensive orchestra seats to see a show.
queen of versailles Will find his audience.
By intermission, I was surprised that critics were so critical of the show. What I was seeing was funny, surprising, and sometimes savage, yet with emotional intelligence. The audience was urged not just to like Jackie, but to at least understand where she came from. The second half of the show is less entertaining than the first, and some songs fail to capture the pain of being a teenager (“Book of Random”). But still, I was overwhelmed.
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There is something deliciously raw about this production. Perhaps this was not what critics expected from a Broadway show involving such a prestigious talent. Personally, I missed the electric energy and ridiculousness of Off-Broadway. titanicwhich imagined what would happen if Celine Dion took attendees on a tour of the Titanic Museum to watch the film titanic – as she remembered – and a lot of Celine Dion songs. That show is still one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen, and a treasured memory of life theatre. queen of versailles Less Bad, flaunts a confident production design that includes as many sets as possible – including the French Versailles and the Florida Copy – that were never in production. Yet it had the charm of such an off-Broadway experiment.
There’s a confusing complexity to it, though not so much Jackie herself. She is so determined to achieve her goals that she inevitably becomes trapped in her own selfish vision. But queen of versailles The doc takes a step back from reality TV and the people that inspired it and wonders what might have happened when the cameras weren’t rolling. Somehow they found a place in this place “Eat Rich” humor And true humanity. Is the balance flawless? No. But is the show extremely entertaining? Absolutely.
queen of versailles Now playing at the St James’s Theatre.