THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES To Close December 21, 2025- Page 3

[MezzA101]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 7:31pm

‘Queen of Versailles’ to Close as New Broadway Musicals Struggle

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/theater/queen-of-versailles-broadway-closing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.308.faV4.EGRPg0L5-z4l&smid=nytcore-android-share

[uncageg]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 7:35pm

melfi39 said: "I have a ticket for January 23rd. Has anyone ever experienced something like this before? Do I need to call the St. James or will I automatically get a refund? Does anyone else have a ticket bought for a performance after the posted closing date?"

 

If you paid by card, it should be credited back when the box office starts issuing them. 

 

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 7:57pm

uncageg said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "32 previews and 65regular performances at the St. James Theatre.

Sure, word-of-mouth was largely negative, but it was grossing over $1 million a week at the time of this notice — if that's not at least somewhat safe these days for a musical, then what is?"



I assume they are looking at advance sales."

Re: advance sales —

Most every Broadway show, old and new, is struggling with this since the pandemic, the exceptions being limited-run plays with major Hollywood celebs that audiences may or may not get to see live ever again. Schwartz's own WICKED has yet to sell 90-95% of the Gershwin for weekends in the dead of winter. Sure, the 2-for-1 discounts should help with that a bit, but most people right now are buying closer and closer to curtain for shows they want to see (most often same-day).

Team VERSAILLES chose to cut their losses before a precipitous drop in grosses justified it first. A gutsy yet painful decision.

And the scary part is, with budgets and production costs soaring through the sky, this probably won't be the last time a show grosses seven figures consistently (at least, at first) but closes nearly on-the-spot, even if there is much better word of mouth.

 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 8:03pm

 Social media did impact this show, but not in the way you suggest. 

The drama regarding her comment went on for weeks and was a major screw up. All their socials were full of negative comments so yes, it absolutely had to do with the show's failure, among many, many other factors. In this political climate, with all the division, hatred, anger and insanity that has happened this year, I think it all mattered. It was truly a collective failure.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 8:09pm

Yet again another show that refused to make changes after it’s out of town tryout. Producers don’t produce anymore. 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 8:09pm

Glad I'm going to be able to catch Sherie. I had to repurchase tickets because I was originally going to see her in January.

[Azúcar!]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 8:42pm

SmokeyLady said: "It was a bad show. It happens. I hope they don’t try to make it like it was all the Charlie Kirk thing because it wasn’t. It was just a horridshow. Her big mouth didn’t help any either. And she could’ve said so much to correct it a little and she didn’t. So that part of it’s on her.
I can imagine after the horrendous reviews and the poor audience attendance that they all just hated going to work every day. It had to be very depressing to know your show is crap."

Those poor actors having to go in every day and put on such blah.   I bet they can't wait for it to be over. 

[Jumpin_J]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 9:43pm

EDSOSLO858 said: "uncageg said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "32 previews and 65regular performances at the St. James Theatre.

Sure, word-of-mouth was largely negative, but it was grossing over $1 million a week at the time of this notice — if that's not at least somewhat safe these days for a musical, then what is?"



I assume they are looking at advance sales."

Re: advance sales —

Most every Broadway show, old and new,is struggling with this since the pandemic, the exceptions beinglimited-run plays with major Hollywood celebs that audiences may or may not get to see live ever again. Schwartz's own WICKEDhas yet to sell90-95% of the Gershwin for weekends in the dead of winter. Sure, the 2-for-1 discounts should help with that a bit, but most people right now are buying closer and closer to curtain for shows they want to see(most often same-day).

Team VERSAILLES chose to cut their losses before a precipitous drop in grosses justified it first. A gutsy yet painful decision.

And the scary part is, with budgets and production costs soaring through the sky, this probably won't be the last time a show grosses seven figures consistently (at least, at first) but closes nearly on-the-spot, even if there is muchbetter word of mouth.

"

100% Most producers will take the show's capital and run it into the ground. Maybe because they think if it runs longer, they can license it better. Maybe because it's not generally their own money. But credit where due. To be able to give at least give something back to the investors shows that they're responsible producers putting the investors first. It's painful as hell to shut down your own show, but it's the right thing to do in the long run. 

[uncageg]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 10:14pm

Azúcar! said: "SmokeyLady said: "It was a bad show. It happens. I hope they don’t try to make it like it was all the Charlie Kirk thing because it wasn’t. It was just a horridshow. Her big mouth didn’t help any either. And she could’ve said so much to correct it a little and she didn’t. So that part of it’s on her.
I can imagine after the horrendous reviews and the poor audience attendance that they all just hated going to work every day. It had to be very depressing to know your show is crap."

Those poor actors having to go in every day and put on such blah. I bet they can't wait for it to be over."

Because you evidently didn't like the show doesn't mean they "can't wait for it to be over". They will be out of jobs. And seeing that less musicals are opening, that means less prospects. So I doubt they all have that feeling about doing this show. JMO

 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 11:30pm

uncageg said: "
Because you evidently didn't like the show doesn't mean they "can't wait for it to be over". They will be out of jobs. And seeing that less musicals are opening, that means less prospects. So I doubt they all have that feeling about doing this show. JMO

"

It's interesting to hear the original 1976 cast of Baker's Wife talk about how eager they were to see it close--but that wasn't because of the material, but more due to the endless touring with constant behind the scenes issues (and no audiences.)  I can't imagine being in this show is a situation where anyone is eager for it to close so they can just hope they get another job...  (Even F Murray Abraham in a pretty thankless role seemed pretty genuine in interviews about the experience, but maybe he just did a good job fooling me...)

[Bette's Turban]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 11:35pm

uncageg said: "Azúcar! said: "SmokeyLady said: "It was a bad show. It happens. I hope they don’t try to make it like it was all the Charlie Kirk thing because it wasn’t. It was just a horridshow. Her big mouth didn’t help any either. And she could’ve said so much to correct it a little and she didn’t. So that part of it’s on her.
I can imagine after the horrendous reviews and the poor audience attendance that they all just hated going to work every day. It had to be very depressing to know your show is crap."

Those poor actors having to go in every day and put on such blah. I bet they can't wait for it to be over."

Because you evidently didn't like the show doesn't mean they "can't wait for it to be over". They will be out of jobs. And seeing that less musicals are opening, that means less prospects. So I doubt they all have that feeling about doing this show. JMO

"

I would imagine artistically they hate putting on that slog every night. There is something to be said for dignity. But loosing jobs is always tough.  Showbiz is rough.  But time to put a period on it and move on.

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 11:54pm

clueless and tone deaf show from start to finish

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 11/24/25 at 11:55pm

They may even pull the plug quicker depending on November and early December sales.  The theater had to have pulled the plug on them.  We doubt this was producer choice.

[MezzoDiva47]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 12:37am

EDSOSLO858 said: "uncageg said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "32 previews and 65regular performances at the St. James Theatre.

Most every Broadway show, old and new,is struggling with this since the pandemic, the exceptions beinglimited-run plays with major Hollywood celebs that audiences may or may not get to see live ever again. Schwartz's own WICKEDhas yet to sell90-95% of the Gershwin for weekends in the dead of winter. Sure, the 2-for-1 discounts should help with that a bit, but most people right now are buying closer and closer to curtain for shows they want to see(most often same-day).

And the scary part is, with budgets and production costs soaring through the sky, this probably won't be the last time a show grosses seven figures consistently (at least, at first) but closes nearly on-the-spot, even if there is much better word of mouth."

 

there is another word for this 

unsustainable

 

[bear882]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 12:55am

I realize that people are inclined to extrapolate based on legitimate concerns about the high costs of new musicals - and the small number of new Broadway musicals this season. But wasn’t the main problem of The Queen of Versailles that it had terrible word of mouth?

As someone who is planning a trip of New York City next year, this show didn’t interest me at all based on the comments here, the reviews and the subject matter.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 12:57am

Call_me_jorge said: "I feel like the stop clause was used here… Bill Damaschke is a deep pocketed producer and would’ve kept it running through, at least, the Tonynominations."

Stop clause not involved, and Damaschke is not as deep pocketed as you are suggesting but to the extent he has a degree of wealth, one of the reasons he does is that he knows better than throwing good money after bad. Look at his line of employers: they are not the money grows on trees types.

[shomeika]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 1:57am

EDSOSLO858 said: "32 previews and 65regular performances at the St. James Theatre.

Sure, word-of-mouth was largely negative, but it was grossing over $1 million a week at the time of this notice — if that's not at least somewhat safe these days for a musical, then what is?"

I thought the same thing. I have NO interest in the subject matter, but the set looks cool.  I thought this was hitting over 1mil a week, according to posted profits. I was imagining after the holidays things would severely die down, but not yet.

Oh well.  Onward and upward.  Kristin and Idina need to do a gig together, stat.  Uh, perhaps?

Updated On: 11/25/25 at 01:57 AM

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 1:57am

Hearing clause WAS used for January 4.  Show has option for sooner.

Updated On: 11/25/25 at 01:57 AM

[shomeika]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 6:08am

CoffeeBreak said: "Hearing clause WAS used for January 4. Show hasoption for sooner."

What does this mean?  I mean what clause, how might that work?  

[ACL2006]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 6:29am

CoffeeBreak said: "Hearing clause WAS used for January 4. Show hasoption for sooner."

Which makes me believe there's a show looking at booking the St. James for the Spring(not EVITA).

[binau]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 6:46am

Anyone know what threshold a stop clause would be these days? 

To be honest, this is the kind of scenario that as a theatre owner I would pull even if the producers wanted to continue on. If they had let the show continue they risk the show closing at a time that might have made the next booking possible - and there were probably a whole host of other shows with a better commercial outlook waiting in the wings. 

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 7:37am

CoffeeBreak said: "They may even pull the plug quicker depending on November and early December sales. The theater had to have pulled the plug on them. We doubt this was producer choice."

"We"? 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 9:05am

TotallyEffed said: "Very cool that you ran into a Broadway star while vacationing here from Reno. 😎"

First, never been to Reno. Secondly, though I now live in Laguna Beach, CA I lived in Manhattan for 7 years and still own my apartment in the Village so I’m in NYC at least once or twice a month. 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 9:14am

BrodyFosse123 said: "TotallyEffed said: "Very cool that you ran into a Broadway star while vacationing here from Reno. 😎"

First, never been to Reno. Secondly, though I now live in Laguna Beach, CA I lived in Manhattan for 7 years and still own my apartment in the Village so I’m in NYC at least once or twice a month."


😂😂😂

[musicthatmakesmedance]

Posted: 11/25/25 at 9:39am

Can someone explain how the stop clause could be invoked when the show has been grossing ~$1M/wk? I can’t imagine their earnings thus far would be falling below a negotiated number. I entirely understand future projections may have been falling short, but future sales can’t trigger the stop clause.