Chenoweth raises the roof off this mansion

'Queen of Versailles' reunites the 'Wicked' star with composer Stephen Schwartz.

- CHARLES McNULTY THEATER CRITIC

KRISTIN Chenoweth stars in "The Queen of Versailles," about a family building a massive home, which opened this week on Broadway.

No one could possibly be working harder right now on Broadway than Kristin Chenoweth, who is bearing the weight of a McMansion musical on her diminutive frame and making it seem like she’s hoisting nothing heavier than a few overstuffed Hermes, Prada and Chanel shopping bags.

A trouper’s trouper, Chenoweth has reunited with her “Wicked” compatriot Stephen Schwartz, who has written the score for “The Queen of Versailles.” The show, which had its Broadway opening at the St. James Theatre on Sunday, is an adaptation of Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 documentary about a family building one of the largest private homes in America in a style that blends Louis XIV with Las Vegas.

When the Great Recession of 2008 crashes the party, the Florida couple who are never satisfied despite having everything find themselves scrounging to make the mortgage payments for this unfinished (and possibly unfinishable) Orlando colossus. Not even the banks know what to do with this gargantuan white elephant.

The first half of the musical traces Jackie's rise from a hardworking upstate New York hick to a Florida beauty pageant winner who escaped an abusive relationship with her baby daughter.