Kristin Chenoweth-Led THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES Will Have Pre-Broadway Run in Boston This Summer

New Stephen Schwartz musical, The Queen of Versailles, starring Kristin Chenoweth, will have its pre-Broadway run in Boston this summer!

Featuring Music & Lyrics from Stephen Schwartz, a book by Lindsey Ferrentino, and directed by Michael Arden, the musical will run July 16 - August 18, ahead of a Broadway run to be announced at a later date.

The cast will also include F. Murray Abraham as David Siegel, Melody Butiu as Sofia Flores, and Nina White as Victoria Siegel.

The Queen of Versailles previously held a workshop in New York City last year.

Learn more here.

About The Queen of Versailles

Based on Lauren Greenfield’s award-winning 2012 documentary The Queen of Versailles and the life of beauty queen, socialite and TV personality Jacqueline “Jackie” Siegel, this Broadway-bound musical will feature music and lyrics by celebrated Oscar-winning songwriter Stephen Schwartz and will star Tony and Emmy Award winner Kristin Chenoweth as Ms. Siegel.

Additional cast and creative team members for The Queen of Versailles in Boston will be announced at a later date. 

From computer engineer to Mrs. Florida to billionairess, Jackie Siegel sees herself as the embodiment of the American Dream. Now, as the wife of David "The Timeshare King" Siegel and mother of their eight children, they invite us to behold their most grandiose venture yet: they're building the largest private home in America in Orlando, Florida – a $100 million house big enough for her dreams and inspired by the Palace of Versailles. But with the Great Recession of 2008 looming, Jackie and David's dreams begin to crumble, along with their lavish lifestyle. The Queen of Versailles explores the true cost of fame, fortune, and family.

The Queen of Versailles is produced by Bill Damaschke, Seaview and Kristin Chenoweth through her production banner Diva Worldwide Entertainment. Mr. Damaschke previously Produced the Boston world premiere engagement of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, which re-opened the Colonial in glorious fashion in 2018, and went on to win 10 Tony Awards on Broadway including “Best Musical.”

Tickets

Tickets for the production’s world premiere at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre will go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, February 28 at 10AM ET.

Biographies

Stephen Schwartz. In addition to the current Broadway hit Wicked, Stephen Schwartz has contributed music and/or lyrics to Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, The Baker's Wife, Working, Rags, and Children of Eden. For film, he collaborated with Alan Menken on the songs for Disney's Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Enchanted, and Disenchanted, and wrote the songs for the DreamWorks animated feature The Prince of Egypt. Mr. Schwartz has been inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has been given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Awards include three Academy Awards, four Grammy Awards, and the Isabelle Stevenson special Tony Award.

Lindsey Ferrentino is a prolific playwright who’s produced plays include Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout Theatre Company, The National Theatre, UK, NYT Critics Pick), Amy and the Orphans (Roundabout Theatre Company), This Flat Earth (Playwrights Horizons), and The Year to Come (La Jolla Playhouse). She is currently under commission from Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, and South Coast Rep. She is currently writing the book for The Artist, based on the film of the same title, directed by Drew McConie. Ms. Ferrentino is also a screenwriter, with various projects in development. Most recently announced, she is adapting and directing her play Amy and the Orphans, produced by Aggregate Pictures, and writing the screenplay for the film Not Fade Away, for Annapurna Pictures (David O. Russell and John Krasinski producing). She is the recipient of the 2016 Kesselring Prize, a Laurents/Hatcher Citation of Excellence, the ASCAP Cole Porter Playwriting Prize, and the Paul Newman Drama Award, and her work was featured in the 2015 Kilroys List. She holds a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and has two MFAs in playwriting, from Hunter College and the Yale School of Drama.

Michael Arden received the Tony Award for “Best Direction of a Musical” for Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Parade, which also received the Tony Award for “Best Revival of a Musical.” He was previously nominated for his Broadway revivals of Once on This Island and Deaf West Theatre’s Spring Awakening. His new production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, starring Jefferson Mays, recently played the Nederlander Theatre. Other theatre credits include Maybe Happy Ending at the Alliance Theatre, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Lincoln Center, American Dream Study, and ALIEN/NATION with his theatre company, The Forest of Arden, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.  Arden has been named on Variety’s Broadway Impact List and is the winner of an NAACP Award for “Best Direction” of his revival of Merrily We Roll Along at the Willis Annenberg. In addition to directing theater in America and around the globe, he regularly directs “The Connors” for ABC and has appeared in numerous films and TV shows, notably “Grey’s Anatomy,” Bride Wars, Anger Management, Source Code, and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Onstage, he has appeared on Broadway in Big River; The Times, They Are a-Changin’; and King Lear. Arden is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and an alumnus of the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Juilliard School.

Kristin Chenoweth. Emmy and Tony Award winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth will also act as a producer on The Queen of Versailles through her production banner Diva Worldwide Entertainment. Ms. Chenoweth's career spans film, television, voice-over, and stage. She is currently filming the romantic comedy Our Little Secret for Netflix opposite Lindsay Lohan. Notable theater credits include You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, (Tony Award), originating the role of Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked (Tony nomination), and the lead role in Roundabout Theatre Company's On the Twentieth Century (Drama Desk Award, OCC Award, Tony nomination). In 2009, Ms. Chenoweth received an Emmy Award for her role in "Pushing Daisies." Additional select television credits include “Glee” (Emmy nominations), "American Gods," “GCB,” "Trial & Error," "The West Wing," Disney's "Descendants," "The Muppets," and Apple TV+'s "Schmigadoon!." Select film work includes RV, Four Christmases, Holidate, Deck the Halls, and A Christmas Love Story, which Ms. Chenoweth produced. She has performed to sold-out audiences across the world and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ms. Chenoweth recently released her hilarious and insightful gift book, "I'm No Philosopher, But I Have Thoughts: For Saints, Sinners, and the Rest of Us."

F. Murray Abraham, veteran of screen and stage, has appeared in over 90 plays and 80 films including Amadeus, for which he received the Academy Award for Best Actor, as well as Golden Globe and L.A. Film Critics Awards. Mr. Abraham recently starred in the second season of HBO's "The White Lotus," for which he received an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, as well as the HBO limited series "The White House Plumbers" as Judge John Sirica.

Melody Butiu recently starred as Estrella Cumpas in David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's immersive disco musical Here Lies Love on Broadway, a role she originated at The Public Theater. TV and film credits include Easter Sunday starring stand-up comedy sensation Jo Koy, "Call Me Kat," "Mom," "This is Us," "NCIS," and "The Kaminsky Method." She has also been seen on stage in Doctor Zhivago(Broadway) and regional performances at Theatre Under the Stars (Houston), South Coast Repertory, Geva Theatre Center, Arena Stage, and many others.

Nina White is currently starring on Broadway in Kimberly Akimbo as Teresa, a role which she originated Off-Broadway. Additional regionaltheater credits include Sister Act (Music Theatre Wichita) and 2AZ (Purple Rose Theater Co.). She can soon be seen onscreen in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" on Amazon Prime and A24's A Different Man. Originally from Michigan, Ms. White is a University of Michigan alum.

Emerson Colonial Theatre, which opened in 1900 with a production of Ben-Hur, is the oldest continuously operated theater in Boston; as well as being amongst the most magnificent, having retained most of its original period details. The architecture of the Colonial itself references the Palace of the Versailles, with the main lobby directly inspired by Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors. In its storied history, the Emerson Colonial Theatre has debuted such seminal Broadway shows as Anything Goes, Porgy and Bess, Oklahoma!, Born Yesterday, Follies, A Little Night Music, Grand Hotel, and La Cage aux Folles, among others. Reviving a great theatrical tradition, Ambassador Theatre Group’s newly restored Emerson Colonial Theatre has more recently hosted the pre-Broadway world premieres of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, David Byrne’s American Utopia, Plaza Suite starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, and A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical.

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