The Queen of ‘Versailles’: Inside the Stranger-Than-Fiction Saga of This Gargantuan Florida Home
David and Jackie Siegel’s 90,000-square-foot replica of the French palace is still unfinished, but it is the subject of a new Broadway musical
Originally published on Architectural Digest
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While touring Versailles, Dane Laffrey resisted the urge to pull out a measuring tape in the Hall of Mirrors. The Tony-winning scenic designer had traveled to the French palace as research for the new musical The Queen of Versailles, and he wanted his designs to be as accurate as possible. In the end, Laffrey, whose Broadway credits include Maybe Happy Ending and Parade, settled for using an iPhone app to record the size of pilasters and mullioned mirrors. “It’s a space that a lot of people have been to, and in the spirit of faithful recreation, we want to present the truth of it,” he tells AD.
Laffrey may have been tasked with bringing the famous Baroque-style gallery to Broadway’s St. James Theater, but The Queen of Versailles—which opens November 9—is not a story about Marie Antoinette or Louis XIV. The musical, inspired by Lauren Greenfield’s award-winning 2012 documentary of the same name, tells the story of Florida residents Jackie and David Siegel, who planned to build a 90,000-square-foot replica of Versailles in an Orlando suburb. (For reference, the palace in France is a whopping 721,206 square feet.)
Jackie, a former model and Mrs. Florida 1993, and David, the founder and CEO of the timeshare company Westgate Resorts, already lived an outlandish lifestyle in a 28,000-square-foot home with their eight children when, in 2004, construction began on the behemoth mansion intended to be one of the largest single-family homes in the United States. Inspired by the Siegels’ honeymoon in France, the dwelling was set to include an ice-skating rink, a baseball field, a bowling alley, and 30 bathrooms, along with a British pub shipped from England—before plans were derailed by the 2008 financial crisis. After work on the estate stalled in 2009, it was listed for sale for $65 million, but never sold. Construction resumed in 2013, but 20 years after they broke ground, the building remains incomplete.
The musical, a twisted take on the American Dream, stars Tony winner Kristin Chenoweth as Jackie and Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham as David (with a score by Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz) and begins in Laffrey’s onstage French Versailles.
“People think they’re going to see a musical about Orlando, and then see this beautiful portrait gallery with French footmen and powdered wigs, trimming candles on chandeliers,” he says. The scenes of 18th-century France (complete with a suit of armor) soon give way to 21st-century Florida (with “a great deal of artfully palletized McDonalds”). The first act follows Greenfield’s documentary, in which David, Jackie, and their kids struggle to downsize following the 2008 financial crash. The film shows Jackie, somewhat oblivious to her circumstances, blithely asking her children, “How was flying commercial?” and expecting a rented car to come with a personal driver. But she also comes across as optimistic and devoted to her husband “for richer or poorer,” even as she goes on shopping sprees and gets Botox.
Just like its namesake, which at the time was viewed by the French as a symbol of extravagance and corruption, the 21st-century Versailles, complete with marble pillars and gold leaf edging, has raised questions about taste (obviously) but also income inequality. Maybe Jackie’s personal first class airplane seat, featured in one of her living rooms so she can enjoy caviar like she’s on an airplane, has something to do with it?
After the documentary’s release, David sued Greenfield, claiming the “rags-to-riches-to-rags story” damaged his company’s reputation. But the suit was later dismissed, and following David’s death in April 2025, Jackie gave her blessing to and even invested in the Broadway show, the second act of which follows her life post-documentary (utilizing some artistic license).
Over the years, numerous challenges have continued to prevent Jackie from finishing her dream home. She and David lost their daughter Victoria to a drug overdose in June 2015, a tragedy that inspired the couple to establish the charity Victoria’s Voice, dedicated to raising awareness of drug addiction. The still-unfinished house was hit by Hurricane Ian in 2022, resulting in $10 million in repairs, followed by the death of Jackie’s sister Jessica three days later.
Most would think that this string of tragedies would deter Jackie from completing the home—but she’s more determined than ever to finish construction, in honor of David’s memory. “I’m going to carry on his legacy. This is what he wanted me to do,” she said.
The continued work was chronicled in The Queen of Versailles Reigns Again, a Discovery+ reality TV show that aired in 2022. Jackie, insistent on hosting a New Year’s Eve party that year at Versailles, sets a deadline which (spoiler alert) she can’t meet. The show also recorded the various adjustments made to their plans, including abandoning an at-home Benihana and shipping delays that prevented completion of the estate’s ballroom floor.
For the musical, Laffrey strove to capture Jackie’s grief in the set design, depicting her loneliness in what was originally intended to be a family home—more the essence of Grey Gardens than Marie Antoinette.
“What we wanted to do was create a visual experience of this project having come to a kind of completion as everything else around this person has fallen away—the death of her daughter, her kids growing up and abandoning her—and she’s just kind of alone in this mausoleum or something.”
The real-life Jackie remains upbeat. In January of 2025, she shared a video on Instagram showing what appeared to be a ballroom with a gold coffered ceiling and tiered chandelier. “I’m over at Versailles, and we’re getting closer to getting done,” she says in the clip.
She just might reign as queen after all.