In the win-or-lose world of mainstream entertainment reporting—where any middle ground is considered borrring—there are usually one or two movies per year that get a lot of gloating attention as giant flops. (Probably the most famous examples are Heaven’s Gate and Ishtar.) Since theater has much less popular appeal these days, it’s relatively rare that a stage work attracts similar publicity. But in the last couple weeks, that kind of media pile-on has occurred to The Queen of Versailles, an expensive Broadway musical starring Kristin Chenoweth that will close prematurely after getting poor reviews, no doubt at a huge financial loss.

It’s from composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz (of Godspell and Disney cartoon fame), who is simultaneously having a huge hit with the second Wicked movie. Que

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