Kristin Chenoweth returns to Broadway in a dire…
Theater review
THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES
Two hours and half-hour with one intermission. At the St. James Theatre, 246 W. forty fourth Street.
At the middle of the Broadway musical “The Queen of Versailles” is an unfinished, 90,000-square-foot home in Florida — one of the most important non-public houses in America.
Misguided, over-the-top, well-intended and seemingly past restore, the mega manse is supposed to act as a metaphor for the American Dream.
Well, keep dreamin’.
Instead, and within minutes, the Orlando-area colossus comes to characterize the criminally dangerous show it’s in; a wrecking ball to good style that opened Sunday night time at the St. James Theatre.
Both Versailles, a very real property in Windermere, and “The Queen of Versailles” in the end beg an equivalent query: Why on earth did they do this?
More From Johnny Oleksinski
The real Jackie Siegel needed to go away behind her low-class upbringing with a Sunshine State palace impressed by the French one she visited on her honeymoon.
Kristin Chenoweth performs Jackie Siegel in “The Queen of Versailles” on Broadway. DKC/O&M
On the stage, maybe “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz and e-book author Lindsey Ferrentino sought to make a daring assertion on financial disparity in a nation where excessive wealth is a sizzling matter.
The musical, after all, is based on a in style documentary made in the wake of the 2008 financial disaster.
Or, possibly, the creatives wished to hand star Kristin Chenoweth a meaty, campy diva function for her first Broadway musical in a decade.
But the reply more seemingly shares the same verbiage as one of the tough songs in the worst rating of Schwartz’s long profession: “Because we can.”
The end result’s far too careless to consider something in any other case.
Siegel, a pageant queen, units out to construct one of the most important houses in all of America. DKC/O&M
For starters, the muse is rotted. Even if the group gained a lifetime provide of Wite-Out and began over from scratch, I don’t see the story of “The Queen of Versailles” ever being turned into a satisfying musical.
That’s clear from the simple fact that the composer, author and director Michael Arden have no clue what to do with their ostentatious main character, the rags-to-riches pageant queen turned billionaire’s partner Jackie Siegel.
Are we supposed to love her? Are we supposed to detest her? At the very least, ought to we wish the best for her? The writers would in all probability inform you she’s advanced. However, complexity is thrilling. This slog shouldn’t be.
Jackie settles for being a flirty, giggly black gap of emotion whose story isn’t served in any way by singing.
She is neither judged nor celebrated. She’s barely even explored as the show tries and fails to make her relatable. The girl just type of peacocks around all night time to bland songs, which might be because Siegel is concerned with the manufacturing.
“Versailles” marks Chenoweth’s return to Broadway musicals after 10 years away. DKC/O&M
At the start, Siegel’s youthful aspirations are acquainted.
As an upstate New York teen — and Chenoweth performs her at every age, too presentationally — she’s depicted as being obsessed with the TV collection “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and host Robin Leach’s catchphrase “Champagne wishes and caviar dreams.”
But there may be a squirmy cheesiness to her “I want” quantity called, erm, “Caviar Dreams,” in which she longs to be “far from the auto lots, chain restaurants and pool room bars.” She desires to be “American royalty.”
It was then in the St. James that I started to silently pray to Saint James for strength and steering.
F. Murray Abraham performs Siegel’s husband David. DKC/O&M
After doing odd jobs, getting in a failed marriage and successful the Mrs. Florida Pageant, Jackie reaches her aim when she marries the founder of the timeshare company Westgate, David Siegel.
David, a milquetoast “sure, honey” tracksuit tycoon, is performed with a half-smirk by Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham, who must be madder at his agent than Salieri was at Mozart.
He enters in a dumb Wild West theme-park quantity called “The Ballad of the Timeshare King” that serves as a useful reminder that Schwartz’s speciality has never been comedy.
Once the couple get began on Versailles, and Act 2 makes an attempt to confront severe household dramas between Jackie, her disapproving daughter Victoria (Nina White) and the niece she adopts, Jonquil (Tatum Grace Hopkins), put together ye the way in which of the yawn. It’s defying brevity.
A documentary movie crew follows Siegel for half of the musical. DKC/O&M
The horrible second half can best be summed up by two scenes: A perplexing requiem sung about a useless lizard is immediately adopted by a journey to the Sundance Film Festival.
I hoped the tag-team of Chenoweth and Arden would have magic to do. No such luck. The actress is a theatrical power, as everyone is aware of, but Simone Biles can’t do a back handspring on a toothpick, either.
With skin-deep materials to work with, Chenoweth transparently leans into broad yuks like she’s serving donuts for dinner. If only her long-anticipated return might be returned.
A body story involving the French court, Louis XVI and Marie Antionette ought to have been axed. DKC/O&M
And Arden, who delivered a good new musical with “Maybe Happy Ending” last season, drops the ball by juggling too many. The sub-Zoom call live videos as the documentary filmmakers shoot, an intellectually lazy 1661 body story at the French court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette that ought to’ve gotten the guillotine in early development and unappealing staging on a drab construction web site all come to naught.
Siegel’s home in Florida stays under construction, and she claims it might be completed soon.
The Broadway musical about it? Scheduled for demolition.
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