I’ll be honest, this upcoming Broadway season has already started in a rough spot. These upcoming shows aren’t really grasping my attention. Last year, every single Broadway show would have had me spending too much on a single ticket. But for this season, that’s not really the case. One in particular is the new show The Queen of Versailles. I was never intent on seeing this show, mainly because that show took over the St. James Theater which caused Sunset Boulevard to close. Recently, I was scrolling through Instagram and saw that the show was announced to be closing on Jan. 4.
As I’ve said before, I’ve never had any intention of seeing this show anytime soon. I had been wondering whether I was missing out on seeing the show until I saw reviews from critics. Many critics argued that the show’s message was either empty or meaningless. In fact, one of my friends, Ally, had the opportunity to see the show last week, and she stated, “I only had an interest in the show due to its controversial reviews and wanting to see if those reviews were correct or if they were just being haters. Kristin was also a factor because I have loved her since she was Glinda on Broadway, but after her whole controversy, I was wondering how she would portray this role, and if it was as ‘tone deaf’ as people described it.” She also described the show as “Capitalism, the musical.” From hearing her perspective on this musical, my reasoning for not going to see it deepened.
On the other hand, it still threw me off a little that this show was closing so early. I assumed it would close sometime in February. I will say, while seeing critics’ negative reviews about the show itself, there was some praise about the show’s technical aspect and the supporting roles. In fact, Ally even praised the technical features of the show, she said “I think the technical aspects were the best part of the show. The set was amazing – from seeing the construction of Versailles in Orlando, the cowboy number, to the finished product of Versailles was really cool. Also, the costumes for the Palace of Versailles, such as Marie Antoinette’s costume and the King were really nice as well. The ensemble was amazing, and the mockumentary style the show had was cool to see on a Broadway stage. They even had a portrait of Kristin Chenoweth as Marie Antoinette. Shoutout to those who worked BTS on this musical.”
Even looking at official pictures of the show, I will agree the set and the costumes look well done, but maybe not enough to snag a Tony Award nomination. Speaking of Tony Award nominations, I have so many doubts this show would even get any, let alone one. Since this show is closing so early, I fear it won’t have a chance to be nominated, which kind of reminds me of the situation with the show Redwood. That show had the original Elphaba, Idina Menzel, starring as the lead. Although, since not many critics enjoyed that show, it wasn’t nominated for any Tony’s and closed early as well.
Besides the point, we’re focusing more on The Queen of Versailles. While the show is starring Chenoweth, who was the original Glinda in Wicked, people were praising other actors involved in the show. More specifically, Nina White, who plays the daughter of Chenoweth’s character. Ally stated “She actually had a good character arc, and the actress performed well through the more emotional scenes of the show. Her singing was very impressive, and to me, was the most enjoyable character to watch. I hope this actress has more opportunities in her career.” I got to see a few clips of the show online and I will agree with Ally. I hope White gets more opportunities on Broadway – she’s an amazing performer.
Overall, I feel very bad for the cast and crew of this show. All of their hard work put into this for it to be shut down so early must be heartbreaking. It also must be scary since it’s very hard to find jobs for performers and technical workers on Broadway nowadays. Hopefully, people involved will find something in the future. Although, at the same time hopefully Sunset Boulevard could come back again! (I’m so delusional but it’s ok).