It is a plan that has critics asking: when will the Clintons take a hint?

Bill Clinton, the former US president, and his wife Hillary, the ex-secretary of state and presidential candidate, embark on a speaking tour of 13 cities later this month but a warm reception is far from guaranteed.

Bill, 72, has seen his stock plummet since the rise of the #MeToo movement. He was persona non grata among Democratic candidates during the midterms and, with uncomfortable timing, the tour coincides with the 20th anniversary of his impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Hillary, 71, is seeking redemption of her own after losing the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, a reality TV star with zero political experience and a record high disapproval rating. The tour is seen by some as testing the water for yet another presidential bid in 2020.

As another former first lady, Michelle Obama, embarks on a book tour at venues usually reserved for rock stars, the Clinton version risks comparisons, in the eyes of detractors, with fading singers who once filled stadiums and now find themselves performing in a dingy club on a rainy Tuesday.

“Let’s see if the audience goes beyond the usual suspects such as ambassadors and people who worked in the Clinton administration,” said Bill Whalen, a Republican consultant. “Other than the story of their relationship, I’m not sure we really want to hear from these two. And with the Clintons there’s always the question of profiteering. Do they have something to say or are they grubbing for money?”

The Bill-and-Hill show starts in Toronto, Canada, on 27 November but its main run is concentrated in April with dates in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, Wallingford in Connecticut, Washington and Boston. Tickets for the show at the Beacon Theatre in New York currently range from $175 to a “platinum” seat for $571; a night later, at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, they range from $69.50 to $119.50.

The events, which like Obama’s book tour are produced by Live Nation, could prove a headache for Democrats desperate to escape the long shadow of the Clintons and Obamas and find a fresh face to lead the charge against Trump in the 2020 election.

History has not been kind to Bill, once the charismatic prince of Democratic politics who revived the ailing party, made the White House his own from 1993 to 2001 and was always on hand to boost candidates. In 2012 he was still the party’s “explainer-in-chief” whose speech at the Democratic convention made the case for Barack Obama’s re-election as no one else could.

But by 2018 he was effectively banished, appearing at at only a handful of private fundraisers to benefit midterm candidates, the New York Times reported under the headline “No One Wants to Campaign With Bill Clinton Anymore.” His centrist ideology has fallen hopelessly out of fashion among young liberals.

Whalen, now a research fellow at the Hoover Institution thinktank in Palo Alto, California, said: “He’s perhaps the brightest strategist in Democratic circles and yet he was virtually invisible in 2018. Things have changed. What brought him to prominence was triangulation and centrism; now any Democrat who goes out and campaigns on triangulation is an endangered species.”

Bill’s personal conduct has led to a re-evaluation of his legacy in the #MeToo era. Critics say he has failed to atone for his sexual indiscretions with Lewinsky, then a 22-year-old White House intern. (Hillary recently claimed that her husband’s affair was not an abuse of power because Lewinsky was “an adult”.) Last year Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a potential 2020 contender, suggested that Clinton should have resigned.

Bill Clinton faced awkward questions about his affair with Monica Lewinsky while promoting his book with co-author James Patterson. Photograph: NBC/Getty Images

Bill’s last public tour does not augur well for the next. Ostensibly promoting a thriller co-written with author James Patterson, he faced constant questions over his handling of the saga and gave answers that left many unsatisfied. He can expect further distractions this time from a six-part documentary series, The Clinton Affair, starting on the A&E network on Sunday and featuring a candid interview with Lewinsky, now 45.

Whether or not Clinton faces direct questions about his conduct during the tour, some feel that it is out of keeping with the mood that produced the women’s march and, in the midterms, a record number of women in Congress.

Chloe Safier, a gender and women’s rights consultant, said: “For better or worse, I don’t think that the public response to a Clinton speaking tour will have much to do with Bill’s complicated legacy of sexual misconduct allegations in the context of #MeToo. But I do think he’s unpopular for other reasons that have to do with the energy and momentum created by #MeToo, which has generated a desire for more diverse, inclusive, representative leadership in many spaces, including our government.

Hillary Clinton. ‘Do you feel nostalgic or do you feel angry that she ran such a terrible campaign that put Donald Trump in office?’ wondered one Republican consultant. Photograph: Paul Morigi/WireImage

Even Hillary’s status as the first female nominee of a major party may no longer quite fit. She has followed her shattering election defeat with a book, a book tour, a series of interviews and regular digs at Trump on Twitter. Last week longtime Clinton adviser Mark Penn caused a stir by co-writing an opinion column in the Wall Street Journal that predicted she will mount a third bid for the White House, reinventing herself “as a liberal firebrand” in what is likely to be a crowded field.

“Dear God, please, yes,” tweeted the White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway upon hearing the rumour.

Could Clinton run again and win? Political operative David Brock, a former Clinton foe who switched sides to become a close ally, said: “I think the jury’s out on that. I think that we see this tour, how it does and how she’s reintroduced again after 2016.”

Brock, founder of the non-profit Media Matters for America and Super Pac American Bridge 21st Century, endorsed the speaking tour. “I think most Democrats that I know would be very interested and eager to have a night with the Clintons,” he said. “She still, I think, has 75% approval rating among Democrats.

“During the midterms they’ve been kind of off stage and so I think there are a lot of people who are eager to see them re-emerge and hear what their views about the current political environment and the future of the party and all the things that will be debated coming up in the next couple of years.”

But Author Josh Kendall, currently writing a book about how the #MeToo movement casts a new light on presidential history, is sceptical. “I think Hillary Clinton would love to run again but she doesn’t want to humiliate herself,” he said. “This tour is probably an attempt to test the water. But there is a segment of Democrats who are tired of her and blame her for the loss. There are also some who might come to question her role in defending her husband’s behavior.”

And Whalen commented: “If you’re a Democrat, you do have to look at her and wonder. Do you feel nostalgic or do you feel angry that she ran such a terrible campaign that put Donald Trump in office? You have to turn the page, you have to find someone younger and fresh, something novel and different.”

With Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Clinton and Obama, he noted, Democrats tend to favour younger candidates with younger families (Republicans go the other way). The Clintons, whose brand was once second to none, no longer fit that bill.

Michael Cornfield, an associate professor of political management at George Washington University in Washington, said: “Their ‘farewell tour’ runs the risk of violating Rule One of the League of Former Presidents: no seeking a third term, even under the Flotus’s name. Maybe especially under her name.

“It doesn’t matter that she may have been robbed in 2016; her campaign left the doors unlocked. Meanwhile, short of a full-out confession, apology and modelling behaviour, Bill can’t shuck his #MeToo albatross, which entangles her as well despite being a victim of a different kind. So what is going on here other than faded stars seeking adulation at high risk of ridicule from SNL and Trump?”