Like the US Capitol a century later, Versailles, that magnificent and ludicrously opulent monument to the French monarchy, was built on questionable grounds: marshland. Many in King Louis XIV’s circle side-eyed his decision to relocate the court to a swampy village miles outside Paris, site of a royal hunting lodge and great potential folly. But he did it anyway – the wetland drained, the sand imported, the running water laboriously engineered to support a palatial ode to absolute power.
The Queen of Versailles, a new Broadway original musical starring Kristin Chenoweth, rests on similarly shaky foundations. The show’s raison d’être is the reunion of Chenoweth, the diminutive diva who originated Broadway’s pre-eminent blonde (Glinda the Good Witch), with Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz. And for Chenoweth’s first lead Broadway role in a decade, the pair, along with author Lindsey Ferrentino, have selected a curious comeback vehicle: a shopaholic billionaire’s wife, proud builder of the largest private residence in America, unrepentant believer in the spoils of American capitalism.
