Kristin Chenoweth‘s musical The Queen of Versailles will be taking its final bow earlier than expected.
The Broadway show, which began previews Oct. 8 and officially opened just two weeks ago, has announced that it will close Jan. 4.
The production had been expected to run much longer — ticketing website had performances listed through March 29 — but it was dragged down by savage reviews at a time when new musicals are struggling on the Great White Way.
The New York Times reports that the show cost an estimated $22.5 million to capitalize, and while that’s a substantial loss, the announcement ahead of the holidays offers time for more people, including Tony voters, to see it.
Julieta Cervantes
Kristin Chenoweth in ‘The Queen of Versailles’
The Queen of Versailles is based on the true story of a Florida couple’s mission to build the nation’s gaudiest home in 2008, before being hit by the financial crisis. The show was adapted from the 2012 documentary of the same name.
The show hails from a crack team of Broadway veterans including Stephen Schwartz, who penned the score for Chenoweth’s big hit Wicked; playwright Lindsey Ferrentino; and Tony-winning director Michael Arden.
Entertainment Weekly’s Dalton Ross wrote in a review that “the songs are just one of many problems plaguing an identity crisis of a show that doesn’t quite seem to know what it wants to be.”
Giving the show a grade of C-, he added that Versailles “toggles between different modus operandi — in this case, campy comedic sendup, surface level social commentary on income inequality, dark family drama, and French historical farce — and does none of them particularly well. The result often feels like tonal whiplash as the production attempts to scratch several itches without truly satisfying any.”
Elsewhere, the show was ripped as “unwieldy” and “terrible.”
The New York Times gave Versailles a rare positive review, lauding it as “an entertaining biomusical with a hummable score” and calling Chenoweth “winsome” and “funny.”
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Chenoweth won a Tony in 1999 for her work in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and was also nominated for Wicked and for On the Twentieth Century.
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