THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES Previews — Page 14

bwayphreak234 said: "As someone who enjoyed the show, I am extremely disappointed to hear about the diary bit being cut. That was a crucial moment in showing Jackie's true character."

I agree it’s crucial to Jackie’s real character, but this production either didn’t know what to do with it or was handcuffed in how it could respond. QOV could have been a brilliant tragedy, but as it stands, cutting that moment is the only way to give her final number a chance at working. I sat there befuddled through her big number thinking, you don’t deserve to sing this. An audience going in blind may now see the ending as a victory for Jackie and Kristin, but for those in the know, it’s like a judge telling the jury to disregard that last statement and not consider it in their deliberations.

Miss America Meets the Queen of Versailles

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/11/10/miss-america-meets-the-queen-of-versailles

Kinda random choice for an official video clip:

I found myself ruminating on it last night, unable to shake how wrong almost every decision is. The real Versailles conceit, given an arch, heavy-handed (and actually heavy) production frame, is so tonally off yet baked into the concept for the show, you feel that no one knew how to abandon it, i.e., no one would say out loud the truth: "that stuff has to go, immediately." If you just scrapped all of that, including the ludicrous pre-show cleaning of chandeliers - seriously, don't ask - in full view of the audience - the show might at least aim for a kind of raw-boned American authenticity. And if you had a composer - lyricist able to capture Jackie's world - the late, great Carol Hall might've found the "Doatsy Mae" and "Hard Candy Christmas" in the tale - it might've achieved some verisimilitude. But Schwartz is at sea with these trappings, and leans on cliches like the hoary "Caviar Dreams" I Want song (staged in a bizarre choreographed moving staircase style that makes us worry that Chenoweth will fall in front of us.)

If Jackie herself is a living cliche, it's the job of theater artists to excavate something underneath her collection of all too predictable demographic-defining traits. The show can never make up its mind whether she's a flawed anti-hero or just an awful, shallow human being who wants sh*t. And we're left feeling dragged through gilt-encrusted mud. When I reflected on its horrors last night, I was startled at how flawed the show is from the ground up.

Updated On: 11/6/25 at 09:18 AM

It feels like this show has been in previews since August.

Living her best life - and regrettably, we know too well what that is - or passed, she is unworthy of a major musical theater portrait.

Updated On: 11/6/25 at 01:04 PM

The Wednesday matinee started almost 20 minutes late, after Chenoweth herself made an announcement that a delay was necessary. Could it be related to the humn? I heard noise in two scenes and thought it was ambient sound to suggest ... something offstage?

By the way, the show has been built around the 11 o'clock spot reveal (already spoiled in footage all over the internet), but the downside is a pretty unattractive set for the two hours before. Everything must be played against the construction, and though the conceit makes dramatic sense, it means we have countless down-center scenes that feel cramped. They're opened up by a lot of business with tall rolling staircases. At times, characters are perched on them while singing or playing two-character scenes. It doesn't read as kinetic; it reads as fighting a static piece of world building. Not much to look at here, until we see the gilt in the reveal and that damned staircase.

Updated On: 11/6/25 at 03:00 PM

Are there any discount codes for this? Intrigued to see just how bad it is but not at full price obviously!

I have been trying to find footage of the reveal online and cannot find it anywhere! Any ideas where to look?

Oh, good. KC will have something to do when this closes by January.

The reveal is in Playbill, Chenoweth on the stairs.

I found the audience reaction eerily unlike anything I've experienced in recent years. The obligatory group rise - albeit in clumps - was punctuated by people stepping over one another to exit. Not a joke, literally trying to flee up the aisles. Someone upstairs shouted "Brava!" at Chenoweth, but you could feel the cast suspended in place by a lukewarm reception that everyone pretended was a genuine standing O. We all felt uncomfortable. I have no idea what critics will make of it, but I've yet to read a posting that identifies anything worth praising. Some outliers "had a good time," and many savor the star. But has anyone read a detailed appraisal of the piece, claiming that it works? I'd be curious if one exists.

iluvtheatertrash said: "Auggie27 said: "I found the audience reaction eerily unlike anything I've experienced in recent years. The obligatory group rise - albeit in clumps - was punctuated by people stepping over one another to exit. Not a joke, literally trying to flee up the aisles. Someone upstairs shouted "Brava!" at Chenoweth, but you could feel the cast suspended in place by a lukewarm reception that everyone pretended was a genuine standing O. We all felt uncomfortable. I have no idea what critics will make of it, but I've yet to read a posting that identifies anything worth praising. Some outliers "had a good time," and many savor the star. But has anyone read a detailed appraisal of the piece, claiming that it works? I'd be curious if one exists."

the curtain call was the same when I went. Eery is a good word. I felt forced to participate when I wanted to scream instead ."

It appears this reception hasn’t changed much since the first preview. Other than the usual screaming queens, I remember my section also feeling very tepid in the reception, with people leaving throughout the show, but also just straight up abandoning their windowcard gift/using it as a doormat