{"id":34465,"date":"2025-11-10T05:23:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T05:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/34465\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T05:23:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T05:23:14","slug":"kristin-chenoweth-leads-a-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/34465\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristin Chenoweth Leads a Mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn 2012, award-winning documentarian Lauren Greenfield\u2019s film, \u201cThe Queen of Versailles<\/a>,\u201d became a Sundance darling. The documentary followed Jackie and David Siegel, billionaires and owners of Westgate Resorts, as they began building a replica of Versailles in Orlando, Florida. The property was touted as the largest private home in the United States. However, amid their massive build, the 2008 stock market crash drastically altered the couple\u2019s financial status. Now, with a script written by Olivier Award nominee Lindsey Ferrentino, songs by Academy Award\u2013winning songwriter Stephen Schwartz and directed by Tony Award winner Michael Arden, Kristin Chenoweth<\/a> is stepping into Jackie Siegel\u2019s sparkling pink stilettos and bringing her story to Broadway<\/a>. Unfortunately, Greenfield\u2019s dazzling assessment of greed, consumption and the American dream doesn\u2019t translate on the stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Queen of Versailles\u201d opens in France in 1661, with 23-year-old King Louis XIV (Pablo David Lauccerica) deciding to build what would become Versailles. Zipping forward in time to 2007, the audience then meets Jackie (Chenoweth), who, while sitting in the middle of a construction site in front of a camera crew, talks about building her own palace, her seven children and why it\u2019s always essential to supersize things (including McDonald\u2019s) when the option is given.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShortly thereafter, we are introduced to David (F. Murray Abraham<\/a>), Jackie\u2019s much-older husband, who seems content to indulge (and fund) his wife\u2019s shenanigans, especially since there are plans to have a Benihana on the meg-mansion\u2019s grounds. From there, across two acts, the socialite welcomes audiences into her world. We learn more about her upbringing and how she worked several jobs to support herself while attending engineering school. The show also touches on her violent first marriage to her eldest daughter\u2019s biological father, as well as her meet-cute and courtship with David. Meanwhile, endless construction, the Siegels\u2019 lavish (but tacky) lifestyle and their chaotic family life buzz in the background.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Queen of Versailles\u201d certainly has more than a few stunning elements. The scenic and video design by Dane Laffery is flawless, transporting audiences between 17th-century France and early 2000s Florida. Additionally, costumes spearheaded by Christian Cowan showcase who Jackie is before she even opens her mouth.\u00a0 From a bedazzled Hermes\u2019 tote covered in red, blue and white to match the French flag to her over-the-top beaded gowns and penchant for gold and glitter, her presence immediately screams new money.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe performances, including a megatallented ensemble, are also excellent. As expected, Chenoweth is a force, and though Jackie isn\u2019t really a \u201clikable\u201d figure, the Emmy Award winner draws out aspects of her personality that offer glimmers of sympathy for this toxicly positive billionaire woman. Abraham doesn\u2019t really sing. Still, he delivers a perfect David, a crochety old man, only pleased if his pockets are fat. Moreover, Nina White and Tatum Grace Hopkins, who portrayed Jackie\u2019s daughter Victoria and niece Jonquil, respectively, stand alongside Chenoweth with their own powerhouse vocals.<\/p>\n

\n\tYet the play\u2019s positive components do not make up for its faults. Broadway is the wrong medium for this story. Musicalizing the story does little to ground the audience in Jackie\u2019s world and instead pulls and stretches the tale, when the themes alone could speak for themselves. The narrative would actually soar if it were given feature-film treatment. Additionally, adding the musical element further bastardizes this tale. Except for \u201cCaviar Dreams,\u201d the third song in Act One, none of the other selections are particularly memorable. Though the opening act is fairly intriguing, by the second act, the nearly three-hour-long performance began to drag, especially as the show\u2019s tone shifted drastically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTaking a documentary and translating it on the Broadway stage was always going to be an ambitious endeavor, and when creatives attempt such feats, they should be celebrated. However, this entry into the Siegels\u2019 world fails to land. Removing several of the music numbers and condensing \u201cThe Queen of Versailles\u201d to cut specific sequences, such as Jackie\u2019s upbringing and even scenes involving the French Revolution (though delightful), would make for a much more tonally focused and engaging production. In the end, some stories are best left for the silver screen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2012, award-winning documentarian Lauren Greenfield\u2019s film, \u201cThe Queen of Versailles,\u201d became a Sundance darling. The documentary followed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[207,20408,17315,9,24,63,122,124,123,20462],"class_list":["post-34465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-broadway","tag-f-murray-abraham","tag-kristin-chenoweth","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-the-queen-of-versailles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}