THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES Reviews- Page 2

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 10:24pm

Midnight review embargo lift.

Updated On: 11/9/25 at 10:24 PM

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 11:00pm

they need people drunk at the party if it goes south.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 11:55pm

TimeOut is negative

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/the-queen-of-versailles-broadway-musical-review-kristin-chenoweth-stephen-schwartz-jackie-siegel

"The Yiddish word for The Queen of Versailles is ongepotchket: tacky and busy, with components that might be fine alone but don’t come together. If you want to see it, you should probably see it soon: Like all those unlucky French courtiers, this show seems headed for the chopping block. "

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 11:59pm

NY Stage Review

The Queen of Versailles: Kristen Chenoweth Vehicle Breaks Down

By David Finkle

November 9, 2025

★★☆☆☆ Stephen Schwartz-Lindsey Ferrentino musical, Michael Arden directing, tell rich Jackie Siegel's tale

https://nystagereview.com/2025/11/09/the-queen-of-versailles-kristen-chenoweth-vehicle-breaks-down

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:00am

NY Stage Review 2

The Queen of Versailles: Chenoweth Is Crowned As Broadway Royalty

By Bob Verini

November 9, 2025

★★★★☆ Kristin Chenoweth rules in the role of a lifetime as a true believer in the American Dream

https://nystagereview.com/2025/11/09/the-queen-of-versailles-chenoweth-is-crowned-as-broadway-royalty

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:02am

Variety

‘The Queen of Versailles’ Broadway Review: Kristin Chenoweth’s Electric Performance Can’t Save this Overly Ambitious Slog

https://variety.com/2025/legit/reviews/the-queen-of-versailles-broadway-review-kristin-chenoweth-1236571652/

 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:03am

NYT Critic's Pick from Collins-Hughes! (Are we missing Green now?)

Material excess can never be too excessive for the central character of this gilded Broadway musical, based on the 2012 film.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/theater/queen-of-versailles-broadway-chenoweth.html

"Based on Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 documentary of the same name, and on the life stories of the real Jackie and David Siegel, “The Queen of Versailles” is more than an entertaining biomusical with a hummable score. Directed by Michael Arden, it’s also a sociological fairy tale — the kind in which flawed people lose their way, and something terribly sad happens, irreversibly.

...

throughout the show, White gives a beautifully sensitive performance as the awkward, cleareyed Victoria, who loves her mother, does not share her shallowness, yet teases her without a trace of adolescent venom. “You look like you’re from Whoville,” she tells Jackie, accurately, about one Seussian getup. (Costumes are by Christian Cowan.)

White’s solos, angry in “Pretty Wins,” distraught in “The Book of Random,” are high points of the production. “Little Houses,” a multicharacter paean to the comforts of a simpler life — the kind of existence that Victoria longs for — has been nicely reworked since Boston and now feels not sentimental but warm.

And Chenoweth is a wonder, sounding a little bit country whenever Jackie is most herself, as in “Each and Every Day,” a love song to the infant Victoria; taking her high notes out for a spin in “The Royal We,” a duet with Marie Antoinette (Cassondra James); and convincing us for a moment, in a turn-on-a-dime song called “Grow the Light,” that Jackie has recalibrated her priorities. Not so."
 

Updated On: 11/10/25 at 12:03 AM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:06am

1 star from NY Post

‘Queen of Versailles’ review: Kristin Chenoweth returns to Broadway in a dire musical that needs a wrecking ball

https://nypost.com/2025/11/09/entertainment/queen-of-versailles-review-kristin-chenoweth-returns-to-broadway-in-a-dire-musical-that-needs-a-wrecking-ball/

[MezzA101]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:06am

In ‘The Queen of Versailles,’ Kristin Chenoweth Can’t Get Enough

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/theater/queen-of-versailles-broadway-chenoweth.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0E8.B34l.GEXkTAcRt0Cj&smid=nytcore-android-share

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:07am

C- from Entertainment Weekly

 

The Queen of Versailles review: A Broadway musical as empty as the mansion it portrays

Kristin Chenoweth can't save a documentary adaptation that barely scratches the surface.

https://ew.com/the-queen-of-versailles-review-broadway-musical-as-superficial-as-subject-11845759

"

Much like the ill-fated Tammy Faye from last year, Versailles (directed by Michael Arden) toggles between different modus operandi — in this case, campy comedic sendup, surface level social commentary on income inequality, dark family drama, and French historical farce — and does none of them particularly well. The result often feels like tonal whiplash as the production attempts to scratch several itches without truly satisfying any.

The musical (with a book by Lindsey Ferrentino) also somehow manages to pull off the rare feat of feeling like it is speeding through huge life events at way too fast a clip (Jackie's graduation! Jackie's first wedding! Jackie's first baby! Jackie's next wedding! Jackie's half-completed mansion!), while simultaneously also feeling like the show as a whole is moving painfully slow."

[rkade21]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:10am

The100WordReckew - 1 out of 5

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ3QhNujdlN/

Updated On: 11/10/25 at 12:10 AM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:10am

NY Daily News/Chicago Tribune is positive

BROADWAY REVIEW: Kristin Chenoweth reigns supreme in “Queen of Versailles”

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/11/09/queen-of-versailles-broadway-review-kristin-chenoweth/

"“The Queen of Versailles” is neither camp (well, mostly not) nor an empty spectacle nor, thank God, a morality tale. It’s an honest effort to explore why some people just keep wanting more stuff, while also admiring the force of personality it takes to procure them. At some points in the show, one blinks up at Jackie and thinks, “Well, I could have been crazy rich like her.”

Maybe one could have been. Or maybe Jackie Siegel is singular. That’s the question Chenoweth is exploring, singularly."

[TheatreMonkey]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:11am

Uh, wow. Yes, Green didn't write it, but I was totally joking earlier about the NYT Critic's Pick. 🤔

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:12am

Theatrely

THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES Doesn’t Quite Reign Over Broadway — Review

https://www.theatrely.com/post/the-queen-of-versailles-doesnt-quite-reign-over-broadway-review

"Saddled with an unmemorable score by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin) and a confused book by Lindsey Ferrentino (Amy and the Orphans), Versailles glides by as bland bio-musical for much of its excessive runtime, the show’s perspective on Siegel meandering confusedly between misplaced sympathy and perverse fascination. 

That is until both the text and director Michael Arden’s staging (crisp up to this point, if sleepy) jolt suddenly to life in the story’s final section, as the overall tone shifts abruptly into bitter rage. Flashbacks to the real Versailles, until now quite useless, take on power as we see Marie Antoinette and her royal cronies being carted off to death. Then a startling transition to our present day seems to all but yell: “If only, huh?”

Now, that intriguing late turn hardly redeems the plodding narrative that has preceded it."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:14am

LA Times

Kristin Chenoweth goes all out to rescue ‘The Queen of Versailles’ from Broadway foreclosure

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-11-09/kristin-chenoweth-pulls-out-all-the-stops-to-rescue-the-queen-of-versailles-from-broadway-foreclosure

"the material never allows Chenoweth to emotionally soar, and the fumbling final number, “This Time Next Year,” requires her to land the plane after the show’s navigation system has essentially gone blank.

“The Queen of Versailles” is designed to bring out all of Chenoweth’s Broadway shine. She never looks less than perfectly photoshopped, but the production ultimately overtaxes her strengths. New musicals are impossible dreams, and this is a whopper of a show, daunting in scale and jaw-dropping in ambition. If only Chenoweth’s dazzling star power didn’t have to do so much of the heavy lifting."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:14am

Slant

‘The Queen of Versailles’ Review: An Unfinished Musical About an Unfinished House

If the pieces of The Queen of Versailles aren’t cohesive, Kristin Chenoweth’s performance is.

https://www.slantmagazine.com/theater/the-queen-of-versailles-review-kristin-chenoweth/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:18am

Washington Post

‘Queen of Versailles’ puts Kristin Chenoweth in an empty reality-TV musical

Based on the 2012 documentary, the new musical by “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz exemplifies the excess it’s too sheepish to satirize.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater/2025/11/10/queen-of-versailles-kristin-chenoweth-musical-broadway/

"Schwartz’s score is otherwise unremarkable, a proficient mix of Broadway pop that’s neither especially dynamic nor distinctive. Many of the songs are lyrically dense — think more “Popular,” less “Defying Gravity” — in service of conveying details the show hasn’t otherwise convinced the audience to care about. Though Chenoweth hardly leaves the stage, she has few opportunities to sing out amid all the overexplaining.

It’s a tireless gig because the musical is more of an apology tour for Jackie than an investigation of what her story says about our culture. (At least the documentarians in “MJ: The Musical,” a redemptive portrait of the King of Pop, editorialize on their subject; the crew here might as well be mannequins.)"

[quizking101]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:19am

TheatreMonkey said: "Uh, wow. Yes, Green didn't write it, but I wastotallyjoking earlier about the NYT Critic's Pick. 🤔"

Okay, so what’s gonna be the over/under on how much Jackie paid for that Critic’s Pick because, pardon my Long Island French, but WHAT IN THE CINNAMON TOAST F$&@?

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:20am

Holden in Vulture is delightful as ever.

Gilt or Guilt? ‘The Queen of Versailles’ Can’t Decide

'The Queen of Versailles,' the new Stephen Schwartz–Lindsey Ferrentino musical starring Kristin Chenoweth, can't make up its mind whether to scold or gawk.

https://www.vulture.com/article/theater-review-the-queen-of-versailles-broadway-burning-cauldron-fiery-fire.html

"If a critic’s job is to say what you saw and how it made you feel, then right now I feel smacked around, and something smells fishy. Based on the 2012 documentary by Lauren Greenfield—about Jackie and David Siegel, Florida timeshare billionaires whose plans to “build the biggest house in America” were scuppered by the 2008 financial crisis—The Queen of Versailles swerves and overcorrects like a drunk driver. Tonally, it’s all over the map. Ethically, it would like to have its cake and also tell the peasants to eat it. It is the confused, contorted product of a set of absolutely incompatible impulses: to ogle, even lionize the Über-rich but also to critique them; to revel in conspicuous consumption and also to satirize it. Ultimately spineless, it ends up wedged in the middle, its highs shiny and hollow and whatever values it aspires to more performed than profound, like a kid rolling his eyes while writing “I must not engage in wanton acts of commercialism” 50 times on the blackboard."

[TheatreMonkey]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:21am

For reals!

But at least we have this new gem from Holden:

"If you’re morbidly curious about the experience, you could try for tickets to the new musical by Stephen Schwartz and Lindsey Ferrentino, with Kristin Chenoweth glittering relentlessly at its center. Or you could save the money and have someone slap you back and forth with a large salmon." 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:23am

Daily Beast

Kristin Chenoweth’s Return to Broadway Is an Ostentatious Mess

ROYAL FLUSH

The musical legend returns to Broadway in her first acting role in a decade. She deserves better.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/queen-of-versaille-kristin-chenoweths-broadway-return-is-an-ostentatious-mess/

"Quite who Chenoweth is playing is as muddled as the story: Jackie as thoughtless capitalist monster, go-getting all-American hero, terrible parent, deluded Norma Desmond? Whatever, someone is clearly going for “camp” in the overall conception, hence the glittery dresses, leopard-print, and the spend, spend, spend excess of it all. But The Queen of Versailles isn’t camp. It’s cheap tat, queasy spectacle, grubby glitz. It doesn’t burrow beneath its surface wealth to ask anything of substance."

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:27am

Not a surprising write-up at all from Collins-Hughes, who quite liked this in Boston, too, despite a weaker second act.

Overall though, as Shomeika pointed out, this might not even be the worst batch of reviews we’ll see this week. 

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:28am

The NYTIMES gave it a CRITICS PICK ???   That's just insane. 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:33am

And yet somehow completely on brand given its audience and unwillingness to call out the rich and powerful these days.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:35am

AP:

Theater Review: ‘The Queen of Versailles’ with Kristin Chenoweth gets lost in a Hall of Mirrors

https://apnews.com/article/queen-versailles-kristin-chenoweth-broadway-review-cc38e073bf90fadab2851e17c1f14c9f

"Chenoweth, who was born to be in a spangly dress and center stage on Broadway, is perfect for the role, an always-welcome jolt of in-on-it theatricality, but is let down by dialogue that’s not as funny as it could be and with a character too unfocused.

Despite an out-of-town tryout in Boston, “The Queen of Versailles” still needs the stage filled with construction workers hammering in yellow vests. It’s not quite completed."