The White House comes to Marblehead

The following was submitted by the Marblehead Little Theatre:

Marblehead Little Theatre will bring the private quarters of the White House to Marblehead on October 1 and 2 in the one-woman show Lady Bird, Pat & Betty: Tea for Three where three former First Ladies will be sharing secrets on School Street.

Written by Eric H. Weinberger with Elaine Bromka, and starring the Emmy Award-winning Bromka, the play is a witty and intimate re-imagining of three women who suddenly found themselves celebrities with a behind-the-scenes look at Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, and Betty Ford, revealing the personal cost of what Mrs. Nixon called the “hardest unpaid job in the world.”

Touring the country, Tea for Three has been critically acclaimed for its blend of humor and passion, cited as “marvelous, poignant” in the Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J. and “a fascinating evening, laced with insight, emotion and humor… brilliant acting” in the Record-Review, in Westchester County.


Bromka has thirty years’ experience in film, television, Broadway, and off-Broadway. She appeared as the mom in Uncle Buck with John Candy, as Stella on Days of our Lives, and on E.R., The Sopranos, and Law and Order.

The inspiration for Tea for Three came about when Bromka starred opposite Rich Little in The Presidents, which she performed across the country and on PBS.  Called upon to impersonate eight of the most recent first ladies, she ended up spending months poring over videotapes of the women. Studying nuances of their body language and speech patterns to explore psychologically why they moved and spoke as they did, she became more and more drawn in by their personalities.  

“These were women of intelligence and grit who suddenly found themselves in a fishbowl,” Bromka said. “I realized I wanted to tell the story from their point of view and I wanted to explode myths.  Pat was called ’Plastic Pat’ in the press, for example, because she was always smiling. Look more closely at her eyes, though. There’s nothing plastic about her. You see the eyes of a private, watchful survivor.”

Her collaborator, Weinberger, is the author of several off-Broadway plays, including Wanda’s World and Class Mothers ’68. He and Bromka zeroed in on the three women, linking their stories by revealing each one at the threshold moment of the end of her time in the White House.

Directed by Byam Stevens, the eighty-five minute performances will be at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday October 1, and 2 p.m. on Sunday October 2 at Marblehead Little Theatre, 12 School Street. Tickets are available online at www.mltlive.com, by calling MLT at 781-631-9697 or using a ticket form on the door of the Theatre. Ticket prices in advance are $25 and $20 for seniors and students. Tickets will be $30 at the door.

For more information, please contact Charles Gessner at 781 631-3552 or chgessner@mac.com.