Jackie Siegel gained notoriety for planning to build the largest private home in America, modeled on the Palace of Versailles in France.
Her dreams almost crumbled in the Great Recession of 2008, and she and her late husband became the subjects of an award-winning 2012 documentary film. She rebounded as a reality television personality.
But before all that, Siegel was Jackie Mallery who grew up in Endwell, N.Y., a bedroom community of Binghamton in Upstate New York, with big ambition and big dreams.
Now her colorful and sometimes difficult life will go up in lights on Broadway when the much-ballyhooed musical “The Queen of Versailles” begins previews on Wednesday, Oct. 8 for a Nov. 9 official opening. And her hometown is part of the show.
“It’s hard to believe. Did you ever think Endwell would make it to Broadway? You’d never picture it,” said Judy Mallery, Siegel’s aunt by marriage, who lives in Little Meadows, Pa., a short distance from Endwell.
Even before it opens, the musical generated lots of buzz for its high-powered cast and creative team.
Broadway star Kristen Chenoweth, the original Glinda in “Wicked,” is playing Siegel. F. Murray Abraham, an Academy Award-winning actor, plays her late husband. Stephen Schwartz, whose resume includes “Wicked,” “Pippin” and “Godspell,” composed the music and lyrics.
“Anytime anybody mentions your hometown it’s exciting. And it (Endwell) is an integral part of the story,” said Wally Roper, an Endwell resident, who saw “The Queen of Versailles” when it played in Boston last summer.
The musical begins with Siegel watching the TV Show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous with her family and longing for the glitz of that lifestyle. Chenoweth sings, “Here lies Jackie Mallery. Minimum wage salary. With a tiny life and great big dreams” and adds, “Growing up in Endwell where the only things that end well is if you find a way to leave.”
Not exactly sentiments you’ll find in a Chamber of Commerce brochure. But Town of Union Supervisor Robert Mack (Endwell is part of the Town of Union) isn’t overly perturbed. “Don’t judge Endwell on a first song,” he said. “It’s no different than anybody singing about small town blues. There’s nothing new in that.”
Mary Jury Roper, Wally’s wife, who saw the show in Boston, voiced similar feelings.
“Some people might not like it, but I took it with a sense of humor,” she said. She and her husband both thoroughly enjoyed the production.
“I hope they (Endwell residents) won’t feel slighted,” said Jenna Lourenco, a freelance costumer who worked on the show in Boston and later wrote an article on it for The Theatre Times publication. She believes the community and Jackie’s parents are treated with a great deal of warmth.
“This sentiment comes through in Act II when Siegel takes her daughter, Victoria (known affectionately as “Rikki”), to visit her parents in their Endwell home.
Nostalgia permeates the scenes set in Endwell as Siegel and Rikki discover how her life seemed so much simpler there, without the complications of chasing fame, wealth and notoriety, Lourenco said.
Reached by telephone from her home in Florida, Siegel said she “loved” growing up in her hometown. She remembered being a Girl Scout, singing in the church choir, and going to a local ice cream shop for summer treats with her parents.
“I’m proud of where I grew up, a humble Middle America beginning,” she said. Still, she made it clear that her dreams went beyond her hometown.
Those dreams took her to the Rochester Institute of Technology where she earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. She also modeled and entered beauty pageants.
After leaving her first husband, whom she called abusive, she married David Siegel, the owner of Westgate Resorts, in 2000. Their marriage produced eight children. Now a billionairess, she sits on the company’s board of directors following her husband’s death from cancer earlier this year. Her 90,000-square-foot Versailles mansion is nearing completion after 20 years of off and on-again work.
“I hope I can be an inspiration for people there (in Endwell) that dreams can come true,” she said.
The book for The Queen of Versailles, written by Lindsey Ferrentino, also takes a tough look at some of Siegel’s excesses. Underneath the show’s lighthearted tone is a cautionary tale of how the American Dream can become twisted in an era of expanding wealth inequality, Lourenco said. It asks the questions, “What did it cost us? How did we let it evolve in the direction it has?”
The show also touches on the downside of fame. Siegel’s beloved daughter, Victoria, died of drug overdose at age 18. There is a sense of pathos when the “Queen of Versailles” returns to Endwell for a visit. She is building a huge monument to herself but risks losing touch with who she was, Wally Roper noted.
Siegel said she cried during the Boston tryout when she saw her late daughter portrayed on stage. But she called the Broadway show “a gift from God” because it brings attention to the nation’s drug epidemic. She has established the nonprofit Victoria’s Voice Foundation to promote drug prevention efforts. (Her sister, Jessica Mallery, also died of a drug overdose.)
Will the show be a hit? “Yeah, it’s going to be a hit,” said Keith Nelson, an Endwell native who also saw the musical in Boston and got a kick out of seeing Endwell being featured.
Siegel’s life story is “pretty amazing,” said Brad Nemcek, a second cousin who still lives in the Endwell area. He looks forward to going to Nov. 9 Broadway opening with his wife and other members of Siegel’s large extended family.
As Judy Mallery put it, “It’s hard to believe.”