“Cause in America, no matter where you start, anyone can become American royalty.”
Musicals can be based on all different types of source material — books, comics, historical events, mythology, and, of course, films, to name a few. So when it was announced that Stephen Schwartz was writing the score to an adaptation of the 2012 documentary The Queen of Versailles, you could say my interest was piqued. How on earth was this going to work?
More so than ever before, I had absolutely no idea how the tale of Jackie Siegel, who sought out to build the largest home in America, modeled after the Palace of Versailles, was going to translate to the stage. I am here to report that with star Kristin Chenoweth, The Queen of Versailles which opened last night here in Boston makes for one of the most bewildering yet entertaining musicals I have seen in recent memory.
I first watched Lauren Greenfield’s award-winning documentary almost a decade ago, and truth be told I have not thought about it since. It's a searing look into the ultra-wealthy Siegel family building their dream house, right as the 2008 finance crisis is ravaging the nation and their personal finances. A commentary and cautionary tale on wealth, class, and what the American Dream looks like, the film has reached cult status for its mixture of social commentary and wildly captivating characters all wrapped into one.
It was that story precisely that inspired playwright Lindsey Ferrentino to dive into bringing it to the stage, and when paired with some of Broadway’s best including a score by Schwartz and direction by Tony Award winner Michael Arden, one could reasonably assume it has all the ingredients for a smash hit.
Much like the never-ending construction of the house, this show is very much still a work in progress as it heads to Broadway next season. Ferrentino smartly structures the show as a faithful translation of the documentary during Act I and what has essentially happened to the Siegels since during Act II — a riches to rags back to riches tale, if you will. While clearly crafted with care from the creative team, the show at points suffers from too much exposition, lifting full scenes direct from the film to the stage. And then we have the central character of Jackie...
One can not argue that Kristin Chenoweth is giving a fabulous tour-de-force performance, rarely leaving the stage for the almost three hour musical except to quickly change into her next gorgeous outfit designed by Christian Cowan — 23 by my count. How lucky are we to experience the genius of Chenoweth at the top of her game. Her signature glitz and infectious bubbly charm is ever so present and boy does the audience eat it up. Where we falter is that Jackie as a character doesn’t feel fully formed as of yet, and the choice was made to cut the not-so-necessarily easy parts of her life. As her abusive first husband is about to strike her, Jackie ends that scene and saunters onto the next comically sipping her diet co*ke and eating McDonalds nuggets. The ultimate question is do we as spectators root for her or yearn for a villainous demise; one can assume this is the hypothesis that the creative team wants us to ponder, but makes it challenging at points as an audience watching our protagonist. Ferrentino spotlights Siegel and her can-do attitude and ambition as a throughline of the piece, but we lack the naivete that Jackie possesses in the original documentary. At a post-show drink with some friends, we all had wildly different interpretations of who Jackie was supposed to be and how we each felt for her, but hey, isn’t that the magic of live theatre?
What could help is a clear direction in tone of the piece; we currently have quite a few in its current iteration. We jump from high camp production numbers to extremely serious direct addresses about death, drug abuse, and the ruins of financial disasters. On top of that, the show has introduced intriguing flashbacks to Paris in the 18th century with Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, stylishly correlating the two women with a passion for opulence separated by centuries. What we get is a borderline case of whiplash, which some streamlining of the show as a whole could greatly alleviate.
All this to say, this show is fun with a capital F and Chenoweth knows how to take charge of any audience and keep them with her till the curtain drops. When they say pre-Broadway, boy do they mean that. I think this might just be one of the largest productions I have seen in years with utterly brilliant scenic design by frequent Arden collaborator Dane Laffrey. It helps that the wonderful Emerson Colonial, home to numerous Broadway out-of-town tryouts, has a lobby also modeled off of The Palace of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors.
The rest of the cast is uniformly wonderful including the always great F. Murray Abraham as husband and “timeshare king” David Siegel. Recent Theatrely31 alum Nina White portrays Jackie’s daughter Victoria beautifully as she struggles with fitting into the life her mom has dreamt up and the clear standout of the production by far is Melody Butiu as Sofia, the nanny. She grounds the entire production as she depicts the working class who serve the Siegels and the effect their wealth has on everyone.
Schwartz’s score is filled with contemporary musical theatre melodies that are a jaunt to listen too, but nothing supremely sticks as an earworm as in most of his beloved musicals. Arden works hard to steer the ship with astute direction but with a story and book so cavernous, just as the unfinished hall in Jackie’s house, it can sometimes feel overwhelming and out of place. Where Ferrentino’s book wins is her comedy, which when paired with the genius of Chenoweth will have audiences, much like Jackie, always wanting more.
Sondheim said it best in his seminal Sunday in the Park with George: Art isn’t easy. If it was, everyone would do it. Thankfully, this Avengers-like creative team is clearly up for the work. The Queen of Versailles is a gorgeous Rubik's cube of surprise and delight that just needs a little more tinkering to achieve true greatness.
The Queen of Versailles is now in performance at the Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston, MA through August 25, 2024. For tickets and more information, visit here.
