THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES To Close December 21, 2025- Page 12

[n2nbaby]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 10:03pm

“Someone” making new names just to be obnoxious about QOV is… certainly a choice. 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 10:16pm

Sutton Ross said: "
I honestly don't see it anywhere. It can't be done in middle/high schools (imagine?), it won't be in colleges, it cost too much for regional theater, and it's too massive of a production for cruise ships. So, ummmm, Vegas? They know a thing or two about tacky, gauche, ridiculous, over the top shows. That is literally the only place I can think of where this piece belongs, besides the dumpster bin outside of the St James."

Yeah it's completely ridiculous to suggest this will have any sort of regional/amateur/school after life (I don't buy that the certain poster suggesting it is being serious.)  I can see Caviar Dreams and Pretty Wins maybe showing up in a Schwartz revue (like that weird "revue with a story" Snapshots which has had various updates over the years) or concert, and that's really going to be it.  But, yes, I still want that cast album.  

 

[EmceeHammer]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 10:16pm

QoV will close the same day as the Off Broadway revival of Baker’s Wife, which will have played almost as many performances. 

I haven’t done the math, but if you include the previews of the original Broadway production of Baker’s Wife, it will have been performed in New York almost as much, if not more, than QoV.

At least Schwartz will always have Wicked (and Pippin and Godspell). Between this and the fallout from Wicked: For Good, 2025 is not the career victory lap that was expected.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 10:20pm

EmceeHammer said: "QoV will close the same day as the Off Broadway revival of Baker’sWife, which will have played almost as many performances.

I haven’t done the math, but if you include the previews of the original Broadway productionof Baker’s Wife, it will have been performed in New York almost as much, if not more, than QoV.

At least Schwartzwill always have Wicked (and Pippin and Godspell). Between this and the fallout from Wicked: For Good, 2025 is not the career victory lapthat was expected."

I don't see how Schwartz would consider Wicked for Good a failure in any real way (and I say that as someone who didn't love it and doesn't think the new songs amount to much at all.)  And to be fair, Children of Eden still does pretty well regionally/amateur wise (but unless they drop that huge chorus, will never try for Broadway.)  

Also, maybe I'm misunderstanding, but the original Broadway The Baker's Wife had zero New York performances--it closed in DC before making it to Broadway (so no Broadway previews, period.)

 

[JSquared2]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 10:27pm

Fireplace said: "I can see paper mill, the muny, goodspeed, Kennedy center, broadway at music circus, and many others doing it down the line. "
 

Cool story, Skippy. 

[EmceeHammer]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 10:37pm

Thanks, Eric. You are spot on, per usual. I was totes wrong about BW playing in New York prior to the recent revival. I didn’t do the math… or the research. Chalk it up to the Mandela Effect. 

W:FG is not good. It’s actively bad, and I think will be viewed as a stain on the legacy of the musical overall. The new songs from Schwartz are unfortunately part of that. (Even though the actresses perform them so well they almost sound like Sondheim.)

it wasn’t my intention to overlook Children of Eden, except I did because… it’s Children of Eden. 
 

Schwartz has had a remarkable and distinct career on Broadway, wartz and all.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 10:39pm

My favorite projection in this thread is the suggestion that the Queen of Versailles will turn up at the Muny Opera. The idea of families hauling their four children out to swat mosquitoes and eat soft serve ice cream before this story unfolds takes the prize. I especially enjoy pondering the discussion in SUVS on the way home. "What happened to the girl with the rainbow hair?" "She got sick." "How come?" "She took the wrong medicine." "How come?" "It wasn't in the right bottle." "But did she die?." "Don't worry about it! It's a musical like Annie!" "But Annie got a Daddy. Why wasn't her mommy sad?" "Her mommy was sad, she just expresses it by building a house! Now settle down and play with your phone!" 

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 10:42pm

This is a total aside but I thought of it since Kristin was just injured. It seems like she makes her curtain call entrance down the middle of the stairs in heels with no railing. I found this rather precarious and dangerous. Isn’t there something like an Equity OSHA that would forbid this. This tiny actress descending stairs without three points of contact. I was worried for her. 
 

Even Sherie used the railing during her curtain call. 

[joevitus]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 11:14pm

EmceeHammer said: "

W:FG is not good. It’s actively bad, and I think will be viewed as a stain on the legacy of the musical overall.."

Uh, what?

[EmceeHammer]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 11:29pm

I said what I said. I’ll save it for another thread unless I’m too lazy to post it.

It’s a bad movie. The poor word of mouth and steep drop in box office is a good indication. My adolescent nieces all said “not impressed.” I laughed my way through it. Pure camp. 

[abcd12]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 11:37pm

Fireplace said: "Are you kidding? This is when it takes off, act one finale. Simple, to the point, she sings undeterred, and the melody is killer. There’s also backup vocals too so it builds."

Once again asking how hard is it to have this troll’s IP address banned from continuing to make new accounts? 

[abcd12]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 11:39pm

EmceeHammer said: "

W:FG … will be viewed as a stain on the legacy of the musical overall."

lol sure, Jan.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/9/25 at 11:47pm

I could see it getting retooled and perhaps slimmed down for a regional production if Ferrentino and Schwartz feel compelled to do so or if another director wants to take a crack at it. Not that it will ever be a GREAT musical, but theatre people are not known for leaving failures alone.

I want to know how much they spent on the Opening Night party at the Plaza. Maybe could have run another week...

[joevitus]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 1:48am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "theatre people are not known for leaving failures alone."

Are there really so many instances? I'm tryinfg to think of them. There's Sondheim's various re-toolings of Merrily and Schwartz's attempts at The Baker's WIfe. Jerry Herman revised Mack and Mable and wanted another shot at Dear World. Maybe the post-Broadway revision of The Addams Family (though was that an acutal flop?). But I can't t think of much else. I can think of many more revivals that re-tool an already successful work, especially when it comes to the classic shows. 

Not arguing with you as much as simply trying to call to mind more examples.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 2:19am

Joevitus--that's actually an interesting thought.  Well, to me, because I immediately thought that it is common for creators to want another shot at their flops but...  I'm not sure it is all that common, as you point out.  Lots of shows that spring to mind that have been revised over the years (Sondheim has Company, and Follies both) were already successes in their original production (yes, for my own purposes I'll call Follies a success.)  Then you have shows that years later are revised by different people (Allegro has had three different book adaptations that I'm aware of) but that's something different entirely.

However, besides Baker's Wife, Schwartz and his collabs have also returned to Rags and Children of Eden (God, I'm starting to sound Children of Eden obsessed)--as well as Working actually, which I always forget was a huge flop.  And I suppose this depends on your definition of the original production--does Kiss of the Spider Woman, where they took a completely different approach after the Purchase failure count, or not, for example?  Should we count Andrew Lloyd Webber/Alan Ayckbourn's Jeeves/By Jeeves--where the revised version didn't have a long run anywhere, but it was obviously a bigger success, in several limited runs, than the 1975 original? 

And all of this is to say, while I still found more to like in QoV than many (most?) I just don't see any reason for the creatives to revisit this piece.  (And, from the few interviews with Schwartz about the show, anyway, I don't see *him* anxious to try revising it.)  There are just too many reasons why I think it would be a wasted attempt.  The common element to most flops that get revised and revived is an appreciation for the score (and often, like with Merrily, a belief that the original production was at odds with the material.)  While I still think if/when a cast album is released, a lot of people will appreciate the score more, I don't think it's something like Merrily or, for that matter, Baker's Wife or Rags where the scores convinced people the shows had to have another life.  And this isn't a show where cutting down on the production will reveal something that was hidden before...

Updated On: 12/10/25 at 02:19 AM

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 6:45am

Fireplace said: "I can see paper mill, the muny, goodspeed, Kennedy center, broadway at music circus, and many others doing it down the line."

here we go again. BroadwayFlash with a new username defending their favorite musical.

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 7:07am

I saw the musical in Boston. Then watched the documentary. If it gets retooled they need to dial up Fred Siegel's malevolence. In the documentary he was emotionally abusive, and she was afraid of him. It may have been a factor in her hoarder tendencies.

The house looked empty on stage. But in the film, she filled it with garbage, animals, feces and a pack of feral children. It was more Grey Gardens than Barbie Dream House.

A production where the set becomes more and more cluttered till she's wading through garbage could be an effective visual metaphor. I'm thinking of something almost  expressionistic.

[quizking101]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 8:48am

Reading the rambling new defenses of yet another shilling avatar is both highly amusing and deeply grating.

It’s also comically audacious to see that they raised the prices of all levels for the now-final week by at least $30 and marking the availability as “limited” when the house is about 25% sold

[east side story]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 8:55am

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[inception]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 9:25am

joevitus said: "ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "theatre people are not known for leaving failures alone."

Are there really so many instances? I'm tryinfg to think of 

Side Show immediately comes to mind for me.

Parade wasn't a financial success in its first outing.

But those are both shows that received critical acclaim   yet failed financially.  Twice on the part of Side Show.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 9:34am

MrsSallyAdams landed on a core problem: the musical "cleaned up" the captured verisimilitude in the documentary, sanitizing defining elements in all of the wrong ways. The creatives seemed to believe that the final reveal of the McVersailles would be so breathtaking as a theatrical coup, its completion alone would somehow validate the navel-gazing heroine's tortuous arc. "Look what she built!" Yet if the design dared to end with a whiff of Grey Gardens if not Grey Gardens, we might've at least seen a metaphor that held a point of view. That damned staircase, so badly used in the finale with that tentative blocking, ultimately has no dramatic value. It's the chandelier in Phantom without the crash to the floor. Therein lies a stalled narrative, trying to get by on static stage pictures rather than an activated protagonist fighting obstacles.  

Updated On: 12/10/25 at 09:34 AM

[Observation]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 9:44am

Auggie27 said: "MrsSallyAdams landed on a core problem: the musical "cleaned up" the captured verisimilitude in the documentary, sanitizing defining elements in all of the wrong ways. The creatives seemed to believe that the final reveal of the McVersailles would be so breathtaking as a theatrical coup,its completion alone would somehow validate the navel-gazing heroine's tortuous arc. "Look what she built!" Yet if the designdared to end with a whiff of Grey Gardens if not Grey Gardens, we might've at least seen a metaphor that held a point of view. That damned staircase, so badly used in the finale with that tentative blocking, ultimately has no dramatic value. It's the chandelier in Phantom without the crash to the floor. Therein lies a stalled narrative, trying to get by on static stage pictures rather than an activated protagonist fighting obstacles."

 

Lol'ing over my coffee at "That damned staircase, so badly used in the finale with tentative blocking." I admit I haven't seen this live, and won't be able to. (I was tempted to travel in to see Sherie if there were dates in the new year) but every video online I've seen, either of KC or Sherie, the unfocused blocking on that staircase drove me absolutely insane. She goes up a few steps, then comes down, then she goes to the railing, then she comes down the stairs, then she goes back up a couple steps, then she grabs her cup from the side, then she comes back down. I'm being flippant, but it really did come across as extremely unfocused. 

I wonder if they set out to really say something with this show when they started and somewhere along the way it all got muddied and they didn't know what they were trying to say. I'd like to know if there was a specific point where they all said "this is now a different story." Once the dust has settled, I hope we start to hear a little bit more about who was driving these decisions. 

 

[Kad]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 9:45am

It is weird that they fictionalized the completed mansion, when in fact the mansion remains unfinished. The truth seems like a much more potent metaphor for the show's purported themes than the fiction. 

Updated On: 12/10/25 at 09:45 AM

[Observation]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 10:07am

And if Michael Arden wants to continue working at this caliber, he's going to need to start thinking about weekly running costs and working within a budget. 

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 12/10/25 at 10:18am

Kad said: "It is weird that they fictionalized the completed mansion, when in fact the mansion remains unfinished. The truth seems like a much more potent metaphor for the show's purported themes than the fiction."

I don't think the final reveal is supposed to suggest the mansion is finished. Dialogue in the final scene suggests only the ballroom has been 'completed' but not the bedrooms etc. Indeed, the lyrics of Jackie's final song are about 'this time next year' when the house will be done - meaning of course next year will never come.