Kristin Chenoweth Suffers Unfortunate Career Setback

Unlike her breakout role in Wicked, Kristin Chenoweth’s latest musical is not very “Popular.”

The actress’s latest production, The Queen of Versailles, has already set the date for a final Broadway performance less than two weeks after opening.

The Queen of Versailles is a reunion for Chenoweth, who played Glinda in the original run of Wicked, and Stephen Schwartz, who composed and wrote the lyrics to the songs from Wicked. As you can imagine, the show was endlessly hyped as the next big musical thanks to their involvement, but reviews were less than positive.

Based on the 2012 documentary of the same name, the musical depicts real-life figures Jackie Siegel (Chenoweth) and her ridiculously wealthy husband David A. Siegel (F. Murray Abraham), who began production on a 90,000 square-foot mansion in Versailles, Florida right as the 2008 global recession began. The show started its run in 2024 at a Boston theater, and proved popular enough to transfer to Broadway.

However, upon its Broadway release on November 9, critics were negative about the overall result. Most critics agreed that while Chenoweth has ridiculous “star power” and gives a great performance, there’s not much substance to the three-hour musical, prompting Entertainment Weekly to deem it as “empty as the mansion it portrays.”

The final Broadway production of The Queen of Versailles will be on January 4.