THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES Doesn’t Quite Reign Over Broadway — Review

Amid the United States’ ever-deepening oligarchical crisis, talk of rolling out guillotines has become so routine that it’s almost cliche. GIFs of a dropping blade are pervasive across social media. In a post-Luigi world, gallows humor around America’s rich and powerful is frighteningly, if understandably, commonplace. 

Still, that shifting cultural tide had not prepared me for a Broadway musical that concludes its wealthy protagonist is deserving of nothing less than unceremonious execution. 

To be fair, “off with Jackie Siegel’s head” may not be the intended takeaway of The Queen of Versailles, the fascinatingly misguided new musical opening tonight at the St. James Theatre. Led by Tony Award-winner Kristen Chenoweth as the infamous socialite, this mostly dull work traces Siegel’s journey from rags to riches; riches that Siegel funnels into the construction of Versailles, a massive private home modeled on French monarch Louis XIV’s palace. 

Saddled with an unmemorable score by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin) and a confused book by Lindsey Ferrentino (Amy and the Orphans), Versailles glides by as bland bio-musical for much of its excessive runtime, the show’s perspective on Siegel meandering between misplaced sympathy and perverse fascination. 

That is until both the text and director Michael Arden’s staging (crisp up to this point, if sleepy) jolt suddenly to life in the story’s final section, as the overall tone shifts abruptly into bitter rage. Flashbacks to the real Versailles, until now quite useless, take on power as we see Marie Antoinette and her royal cronies being carted off to death. Then a startling transition to our present day seems to all but yell: “If only, huh?”

Now, that intriguing late turn hardly redeems the plodding narrative that has preceded it. And the takeaway remains muddy—are we to view Jackie as an avatar for the worst excesses of American capitalism, or a victim of the same predatory systems that daily bear down on us all? Yet the potent finale at least displays something Versailles has otherwise so totally lacked: a point of view. 

Certainly that final Antoinette tableau explains why Arden and co. kept the show’s period framing device, an otherwise fatal error. The show opens on Louis XIV in Versailles singing cheerfully about his grand excesses, and monarchist intrusions continue throughout the narrative. But most of these scenes feel like window dressing, and serve only to slow the narrative’s momentum. 

Not that Ferrentino seems to be in any hurry. The show’s first act traces Siegel’s upbringing in great detail, covering her early career, an abusive first husband, and Siegel’s eventual marriage to timeshare magnate David Siegel (F. Murray Abraham), who funds Versailles. The crash of 2008, which brought construction to a halt, does not even arrive until just before intermission. 

Chenoweth herself is excellent throughout, finding pathos in Siegel’s journey without ever sentimentalizing. But no-one else has much to work with. Abraham is mostly brusque; Jackie’s niece Jonquil (Tatum Grace Hopkins) enters late and feels narratively needless; her neglected daughter Victoria fares better but is underdeveloped, despite the best efforts of an excellent Nina White. 

White’s moving solo “Pretty Wins” is one of the few standouts of Schwartz’s sadly forgettable score. The man can’t exactly write a bad tune, of course. His lyrics are solid, and Chenoweth sells every solo—particularly that finale, “This Time Next Year”—with an appropriate air of desperation. But while Schwartz’s work can sometimes have a satirical edge, his writing has never been pointed in that regard. When Versailles does find some angry power in its final moments, it does so in spite of Schwartz’s jaunty score, not because of it.  

As the cost of Siegel’s selfishness and greed finally comes due, that surprising rage sneaks its way into the proceedings. It’s too little and too late, but suggests an intriguing road not taken. What might a truly, dedicatedly vicious version of Queen of Versailles have looked like? It’s what our times call for. Sometimes, a sharp blade has to fall.

The Queen of Versailles is now in performance at the St. James Theatre in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.