Queen of Versailles Lacks Depth

You have to even ask yourself: "why even put this show on, let alone put it on Broadway"! Opening on November 9th, this horrific show about glutinous Jackie Siegel, a Florida wanna be socialite was first a documentary back in 2012. Worse yet, Lauren Greenfield's documentary was award winning... so much for critiquing talent!

While Kristin Chenoweth is excellent, she alone cannot carry this abomination! Poised and clever, Chenoweth is hopelessly bound to the horrible score of Stephen Schwartz and poor direction by Michael Arden.

The bigger question here is why and how do producers think that a story about a woman building a $100 million dollar home, the largest one in The United States will be interesting to a Broadway audience. Worse than that, it is set to music!

Like the movie, the show follows Jackie and her husband David Siegel (F. Murray Abraham), the self-proclaimed "timeshare King". The set out to build a 90,000-square-foot mansion in Orlando emulating the French palace of the same name. When the financial crises hits in 2008, these lower class people, they have to abandon their dreams. Even with the bail out, their pursuit to finish the house is just a dream.

The audience can never feel sorry for these two, and as such, we feel a dislike towards the lead actors. The hubris is too much for the viewer. Wanting to go all in on the house, rather than slink away from the snake-oil that is being sold to the public, Jackie (Chenoweth) wants to be grand when the grand party of real estate is over. Not having a climax, she is living within the falling action and she doesn't even know it.

There is no doubt that the audience is there to see Chenoweth. She plays off this show with great "tongue and cheek". She without a doubt delivers a bold performance, maybe her best one yet, however, not even a powerhouse talent like hers can make this show anything other than what it is... cheesy!

Where Chenoweth finds humanity in the character, the real life Jackie had none. It would have been more realistic if the director showed that aspect of Siegel, but he didn't. Even with a great drive for success, Siegel's ambition was blinded by what was real and lifelike. Sure she had charisma, even a good sense of humor, but she is just not a likeable person. Decadent, ostentatious and low class, we never have a good feeling about her regardless how she is portrayed on the stage.

In the world of timeshares, or any get rich quick scheme off the public's back. it usually ends in ruins. Here it is no different. A dream about building something that seems like the Siegel's can afford to do, turns to more of a nightmare. While Chenoweth can belt out the tunes still, it makes no difference because everything around her is like that dream house... just a dream. It begs the question:"what was everybody thinking when they came up with this idea for a show?".

Not only is this a bad musical, they torture the audience for close to three hours! "Queen of Versailles" is more like a producers dream or a pat on the back toward themselves rather than a serious production. The book, the choreography, the direction all have no business being on Broadway. This show will go down as one of the worst shows of the season for sure!

As we await "Purple Rain" to come to Broadway; it begs the question: will more original musicals come to Broadway due to the high costs? Will more stupid ones, like this one come to Broadway? With ticket prices so high, can they afford to bring less thought out shows like "Queen" to Broadway?

#Broadway Bob, No Bull With Raging Robert, Tony Awards, DC Shutdown, Kristin Chenoweth, "Queen of Versailles", France, The Siegel's, St. James Theatre.