2025 has been the 12 months of Wicked! The film adaptation, which got here out on the tail finish of final 12 months, has ignited a full-on Elphaba and Glinda craze that reveals no indicators of abating. Halloween costumes have been in every single place. The Wicked: For Good sequel is able to dominate the field workplace upon it's Nov. 21 launch date. And the unique stage musical, which first hit Broadway 22 years in the past, remains to be enjoying to packed homes on the Nice White Manner.

With all this fanfare, by no means has there been a greater time for the 2 beloved authentic stars of Depraved, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, to make triumphant returns to the stage!

But generally, timing is not every part. Menzel's Redwood — which featured the actress actually hovering in a harness on stage whereas singing about climbing an enormous tree — by no means took artistic flight throughout its underwhelming run earlier this 12 months. And now it’s Chenoweth's flip to headline a Broadway musical so undeserving of her abilities.

That musical is The Queen of Versailles. Opening tonight on the St. James Theatre, the present is an adaption, and continuation of kinds, of the equally titled and critically acclaimed 2012 documentary on Jackie Siegel (performed right here by Chenoweth), and her household’s quest to construct an enormous and opulent dwelling. That quest involves a screeching halt because of the 2008 recession, as Jackie scrambles to regulate to a brand new way of life whereas husband David struggles to maintain his timeshare empire from crumbling.

Now that story is advised… by means of music! And the songs are simply one among many issues plaguing an identification disaster of a present that doesn’t fairly appear to know what it desires to be.

Very similar to the ill-fated Tammy Faye from final 12 months, Versailles (directed by Michael Arden) toggles between totally different modus operandi — on this case, campy comedic sendup, floor stage social commentary on revenue inequality, darkish household drama, and French historic farce — and does none of them notably properly. The outcome usually appears like tonal whiplash because the manufacturing makes an attempt to scratch a number of itches with out really satisfying any.

The musical (with a e book by Lindsey Ferrentino) additionally someway manages to drag off the uncommon feat of feeling like it’s rushing by means of large life occasions at method too quick a clip (Jackie's commencement! Jackie's first marriage ceremony! Jackie's first child! Jackie's subsequent marriage ceremony! Jackie's half-completed mansion!), whereas concurrently additionally feeling just like the present as an entire is transferring painfully sluggish.

This seemingly unexplainable space-time-continuum confusion can be tied into the characters themselves. Jackie's niece Jonquil (performed with spunk and spirit by Tatum Grace Hopkins) reveals as much as dwell with the household after her personal mother overdoses, and instantly takes offense when Jackie's daughter Victoria (Nina White) asks trivial questions on hair dye and live shows, but then actually seconds later is singing giddily in regards to the joys of proudly owning a Juicy observe swimsuit and Motorola Razr telephone — slow-burn transition be damned.

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Daughter Victoria is a minimum of given a extra earned and gradual arc as a personality actually having fun with among the traps of seemingly limitless wealth but additionally combating pressures from her mom and others to look the half — particularly when trying the half means dropping a couple of kilos.

Sadly, Victoria is saddled with among the lamest tunes of all, together with an ode to a deceased pet ("Pavane for a Lifeless Lizard") and maybe probably the most superficial music ever about superficiality with the no-duh anthem "Fairly Wins." Though bonus factors, I suppose, for rhyming "decrease lip augmentation" with "vaginal rejuvenation."

The songs packing so little punch all through, and starting from merely generic and forgettable to barely embarrassing ("Carry on Thrustin'"), is perhaps the most important shock of all — seeing as how the music and lyrics come from yet one more acclaimed Depraved vet: Stephen Schwartz (additionally the person behind such beloved titles as Godspell and Pippin).

Who would have thought a reunion between one among Broadway's most cherished voices and the person who gave her a few of her most common materials may produce such underwhelming outcomes?

As a lot work because the play does early on to elucidate Jackie's preoccupation with wealth, the character nonetheless feels underdrawn, by no means actually delving into her failures as a mom past making an attempt to get her daughter to drop pounds. Neither is Jackie's sudden obsession with fame and being on digital camera ever really explored past a easy throwaway line about constructing her "model."

If the mission of the present was to tear away the façade of a girl clearly pushed by appearances, that mission is actually not achieved. (I’ll notice that costume designer Christian Cowan actually understood his mission to show the star in a sequence of fabulously ridiculous outfits involving outsized pink feather sleeves and an assortment of sequined mini-skirts and heels. A+ work there on all fronts.)

Taking part in Jackie's husband David, F. Murray Abraham is one thing of a non-factor. The magnate character is launched in advantageous, enjoyable trend — courtesy of a western-themed explainer music ("The Ballad of the Timeshare King") — however then largely retreats into his workplace as soon as the monetary lure door opens, often rising to grouse about his fading empire and the price of electrical energy. The actor was given extra to work with enjoying mute early this 12 months on the Irish Repertory Theatre in Beckett’s "Krapp's Final Tape."

In a world during which a lot of Broadway is choosing minimalist stage design — for both artistic or budgetary causes — Versailles, like its topic, spares no expense. Dane Laffrey's units really feel appropriately busy throughout the development part of the present, with ladders, buckets, and different gear strewn in regards to the stage. And the ultimate set piece (no spoilers) is really a marvel to behold.

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Sadly, on the center of all that well-designed chaos is similar visible crutch that has popped up in so many Broadway reveals of late — a big video display. It makes irrespective of that the documentary angle lends credibility to the display as narrative gadget. The identical might be stated of Network. Or Good Evening, and Good Luck. Or Sunset Blvd. Or The Picture of Dorian Gray. Or loads of others who’ve gone that route. Simply because you will have an excuse to do it doesn’t imply you need to.

Even with all its flaws, there may be one temporary second, proper close to the top, the place The Queen of Versailles appears on the verge of doing one thing really radical.

It’s a scenario the place Jackie has each received all of it but additionally misplaced all of it on the similar time, and the present appears ready to finish abruptly with its protagonist pressured to confront her total life's mission that has left her at this crossroads. However the second is fleeting, because the orchestra strikes again up, the sharp edge is dulled, the curtain falls, and audiences are left to ponder how a present so large may additionally say so little. Grade: C–

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