*The Queen of Versailles,* Nov 11 2025

Karen and I saw *The Queen of Versailles* on Nov 11, 2025.

It's a new musical with music by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Lindsey Ferrentino. It's based on the 2012 documentary about Jackie Siegel, wife of David Siegel, Florida's self-declared Timeshare King. He was rolling in (rancid) dough in the aughts and decided to build Jackie a replica of Versailles outside of Orlando. They kept adding to it over the years, stopped building when the market crashed in 2008, got a government bailout and continued building. According to Google the house is "nearing completion."

The musical covers the same ground as the documentary and then goes beyond it, covering more of Jackie's often tragic story. The show was built as a showcase for its star, Kristin Chenoweth. She played Glinda in the original cast of Schwartz's *Wicked* and she and Schwartz been talking about doing another show together for over 20 years. This is it and from my perspective it was a genius choice.

The show uses a framing device of members of the French royal family building Versailles, living there, and being removed from there and guillotined. These French flashbacks happen at four moments in the show and they shed a creepy kind of light on Jackie and David and their aspirations and delusions.

I was put off by Jackie's first couple of songs - - they had a country flavor and were not really to my taste. They made a nice contrast to the French baroque vibe of the scene before it but I think one country song was plenty, we didn't need two. The music covered many different styles but somehow the tone stayed consistent. That's a remarkable achievement, due to the show being well built by the creators, two strong central performances, and a sure hand by director Michael Arden. The highlight of the production was the use of live onstage cameras with the video projected onto a huge TV screen. This conveyed the bloated sense of grandeur of the family and also delivered a big emotional punch at a few key moments. I'm not always a fan of this in the theater but in this case it added a lot.

My favorite songs did something I love, something perfected by Weill and Brecht, later by Kander and Ebb, also Sondheim now and then. They take something unpleasant and cloak it in a cloying, catchy tune. The overall effect is both pleasing and unsettling, a rich and rewarding experience as an audience member. The best example of this: David proposed to Jackie in one scene and he said, "There's just one thing I need from you," and seamlessly started a charming ballad, "Trust Me." It literally made me gasp, something that doesn't happen every day.

F. Murray Abraham was wonderful as David. The dude is 86 years old, still has it in a big way, and has a surprisingly strong and appealing voice. Schwartz did an expert job of writing music that hit him in his sweet spot.

Chenoweth was extraordinary. I was surprised that so many of her songs sat low in her voice but she sounded good down there and clearly they could put those songs wherever they want. She had a few legit high notes at the start of the second act, those were a joy to hear.

The audience went nutso - - they were actually pretty nutso throughout. This show really shows what she can do and is an ideal project for a soubrette in her 50s. Karen predicts that she'll win a Tony and she is definitely deserving.

I said to Karen as we were leaving, "I thought it was very good but I'm not sure I liked it." The morning after I found myself admiring the craft of the show, more in retrospect than when I was sitting there watching it. I wonder what THAT says...