When playwright Lindsey Ferrentino first saw the 2012 documentary “The Queen of Versailles,” she immediately imagined it as a musical. The couple at the film’s center, David and Jackie Siegel, don’t scream musical (at least not to this journalist) — they’re more subdued on-screen. But their grandiose circumstances felt innately theatrical — and specifically musical — to Ferrentino.
The Siegels are American billionaires. David A. Siegel grew up in Chicago and ascended to become known as the “Timeshare King,” the owner of Westgate Resorts, the largest privately owned timeshare company in the world. He married his third wife, Jacqueline Mallery (now Siegel), on Jan. 2, 2000. In 2007, the couple and their eight children lived in an approximately 26,000-square-foot Florida home. But a visit to France’s Palace of Versailles inspired the Siegels to build their own Florida-set Versailles, the largest home in the United States.
When the 2008 financial crisis hit, construction of the Siegels’ approximately 90,000-square-foot dream home halted. Versailles sat, gargantuan and empty — and on the market. The documentary follows their fight to save their company, their wealth and their Versailles.
Ferrentino could see this grand story unfolding onstage in her mind’s eye. “The scale of this house, the insanity of the things they were buying and the mania of it felt so huge and larger than life,” Ferrentino told Broadway News. “That image of a small person from a small town with big dreams being dwarfed by this massive tomb felt very singable. You could hear the echoes of what that space is and sounds like.”
The playwright is the driving force behind the musical “The Queen of Versailles” (inspired by the documentary), which premiered at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre on July 16 and runs through Aug. 25. The musical intends to bow on Broadway in 2025.
