Orlando has found a home on Broadway — in a musical all about an Orlando home.

“The Queen of Versailles,” based on the documentary about Central Florida socialite Jackie Siegel and her quest to build the biggest home in America, officially opened at New York City’s St. James Theatre on Nov. 9 after a 2024 Boston run.

The show reunites original “Wicked” star Kristen Chenoweth with that hit’s composer, Stephen Schwartz, but I wouldn’t expect “The Queen of Versailles” to last as long as the story of the frenemies from Oz.

Reviews mostly leaned toward the negative, though the few critics that praised the show really, really liked it. New York Times critic Laura Collins-Hughes, for one, awarded “The Queen of the Versailles” the newspaper’s coveted Critic’s Pick designation. Meanwhile, in the New York Post, Johnny Oleksinski was as scathing as can be, proclaiming in its headline that the show is “a dire musical that needs a wrecking ball.”

What’s fascinating is that even the critics who dislike the show don’t always agree on what it’s lacking or what parts of it work, though many felt the tone was muddled and the point of view fuzzy: Should we root for or against Jackie Siegel in her quest?

On the positive side, there was broad agreement that Chenoweth gives a dynamic turn as the title character. “What a star performance!” gushes Chris Jones in his postive review for the New York Daily News.

For those who don’t remember, Jackie came into money when she married David Siegel, the Westgate Resorts timeshare mogul. (He died in April.) The musical follows her early life in Upstate New York, her move to Florida, marriage and plans to build the opulent megamansion in Windermere — plans interrupted when the Siegels lose their fortunes in the economic crash of 2008.

A documentary of the same name was made in 2012, and though the Siegels regained their financial footing, that film felt like a cautionary tale about wanting too much.

“The Queen of Versailles” plays at the St. James Theatre in New York City. Note the New York Times Critic’s Pick logo added to the video marquee. (Matthew J. Palm/Orlando Sentinel)

Maybe critics had a colder reaction to how the story reads in the present day, as millions worry about the rising cost of everything from food to health care. It’s not as much fun to laugh at the rich and their fancy houses and petty concerns when you don’t know how you’re going to make rent next month.

But it is rather funny to see how completely critics can disagree; art is subjective, after all.

Take the music, for example.

“The songs packing so little punch throughout, and ranging from merely generic and forgettable to slightly embarrassing (“Keep on Thrustin’”), might be the biggest shock of all — seeing as how the music and lyrics come from yet another acclaimed ‘Wicked’ vet: Stephen Schwartz (also the man behind such beloved titles as ‘Godspell’ and ‘Pippin’),” laments Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly.

Robert Hofler of The Wrap counters that “The Queen of Versailles” is actually one of Schwartz’s most accomplished scores.

Kristin Chenoweth sports one of the colorful costumes she wears as Jackie Siegel during a performance of “The Queen of Versailles” at the St. James Theatre in New York. (Julieta Cervantes via AP)

Some think the show drags endlessly, while others praise director Michael Arden’s fludity. Some love a framing devise of King Louis XIV, who built the real Palace of Versailles, while others think that device has to be cut.

The two critics of the New York Stage Review have opposite takes on most of the show. Like the old Siskel and Ebert thumbs-up, thumbs-down days, one awarded the show four out of five stars; the other gave two.

The Stage Review’s Bob Verini calls it “the sharpest critique of one-percenter entitlement to hit Broadway in a long time and “a lavishly overstuffed, irresistibly entertaining confection.”

His less-enthusiastic colleague David Finkle complains of the “bloated” musical that “boredom has set in.”

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So what do I think? Since it’s my column, I’m glad you asked. I was pretty positive about the show when I saw the out-of-town tryout in Boston. Such pre-Broadway runs are usually testing grounds, and I expected the creative team could take this promising, if too long, version and develop it into something better.

Well, in my opinion — for what it’s worth among all these other opinions — that didn’t happen. It still feels like a work in progress that has to address some fundamental points, crucially including its ultimate message for the audience.

The Associated Press’s Mark Kennedy agrees with me: “‘The Queen of Versailles,’ still needs the stage filled with construction workers hammering in yellow vests,” he wrote in his review. “It’s not quite completed.”

Critics were very mixed on Broadway’s “The Queen of Versailles,” but nearly all had praise for Kristin Chenoweth. (Julieta Cervantes/TNS)

In Boston, I loved the audaciousness of the social critique and wanted more of that. Instead, it feels like we got less in New York.

Be careful what you wish for, I suppose, because I wanted the tonal disparity between Acts 1 and 2 to be evened out. That happened somewhat, but by making the first act feel less fun — which wasn’t my intent.

The final scenes are attention-grabbing and the best part of the entire show, but I think for most people it will be a case of far too little, far too late.

What will the real Jackie Siegel make of the reviews? Well, if the musical “The Queen of Versailles” teaches us anything, it’s that she is comfortable in her own skin and doesn’t care what the world thinks.

She has bigger fish to fry anyway: That house in Windermere still isn’t done.

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