HotmailBroadway's bright lights shine on first couple
Obamas dine at West Village restaurant, head to the Belasco Theater
 J. Scott Applewhite / AP Both were decked out: She wore her hair up, heels and a sleeveless black ruffled dress that fell below the knee while he went tieless in a dark suit and white shirt. |
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NBC staff twitters Inside the White House |
President Barack Obama made good on a campaign promise to his most important supporter Saturday night — his wife, Michelle.
The president and first lady jetted for a date in New York late Saturday afternoon, aides and media in tow.
"I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished," the president said in a statement an aide read to the press.
Following dinner at Blue Hill, a West Village restaurant touted by New York magazine as a "seminal Greenmarket haven" that features food grown by chef and owner Dan Barber on his upstate farm, the president and first lady were headed to the Belasco Theater to see "Joe Turner's Come and Gone."
The play by August Wilson is about black America in the early 1900s, with residents of a boardinghouse recalling their migration from the sharecropping farms of the South to the industrialized North.
As the motorcade drove through the West Village, crowds of people gathered on the sidewalks of the blockaded streets to wave as he passed. The street in front of the Blue Hill was closed to passersby, with gates and security personnel keeping people away.
The Obamas left the theater after the play and were greeted by more cheers from enthusiastic bystanders along New York streets as they headed back for the flight to Washington.
Trip raises conservative ire
The White House declined to say how much the trip was costing taxpayers, and even before the smaller jet left Washington, the there-and-back trip drew criticism from the Republican National Committee. The RNC issued a news release that chastised Obama for saying he understands American's troubles, but then hopping up to New York for "a night on the town."
Noting that General Motors is expected to file for Chapter 11 protection on Monday, the news release said: "Putting on a show: Obamas wing into the city for an evening out while another iconic American company prepares for bankruptcy."
Trips bring back memories
In an interview before his inauguration, Barack Obama said he and his wife like having "date nights," usually on Fridays. Since moving to Washington, the Obamas have managed to fit in at least a few nights out in the nation's capital.
Earlier in May, the two dined for nearly two hours at a Georgetown restaurant before taking an 8-minute stroll around the White House grounds. They've watched an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performance at the Kennedy Center and celebrated Mrs. Obama's birthday with friends at Equinox, a white-tablecloth restaurant near the White House.
While on a trip to New York last week, Michelle Obama was reminded about the couple's first date.
"You know, after 20-some-odd years of knowing a guy, you forget that your first date was at a museum," she said. "But it was, and it was obviously wonderful. It worked."
Before traveling to New York, the Obamas watched daughter Malia's soccer game for an hour Saturday morning.
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