Review Roundup: Michael John LaChiusa's FIRST DAUGHTER SUITE Opens at The Public

The world premiere musical First Daughter Suite, written by Michael John LaChiusa, and debuting at The Public Theater, directed by Kirsten Sanderson, officially opens tonight, October 21, 2015.

The complete cast of First Daughter Suite features Alison Fraser (Nancy Reagan, Betty Ford); Rachel Bay Jones (Laura Bush,Rosalynn Carter); Caissie Levy (Patti Davis, Julie Nixon); Theresa McCarthy (Robin Bush, Hannah Nixon); Betsy Morgan (Trisha Nixon, Susan Ford); Isabel Santiago (Anita Castelo); Carly Tamer (Amy Carter); Mary Testa (Barbara Bush); and Barbara Walsh (Pat Nixon).

A historical fantasia in four parts, First Daughter Suite follows Patricia Nixon and daughters Tricia and Julie, Rosalynn and Amy Carter, Betty and Susan Ford, Patti Davis and mom Nancy Reagan, and Barbara Bush and daughter-in-law Laura as they strive to live meaningful lives in the public eye, while dealing with the complex private relationships all of us face with our parents and children.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Michael Dale, BroadwayWorld: LaChiusa's luscious chamber score is heavily conversational, embellished with musical themes that provide more subtext than traditional melody until he surprises you with something like Patti Davis' bluesy mad scene or Betty Ford's cheery showtune. As with many of his musicals, the drama takes on the greater significance, and First Daughter Suite is richly dramatic.

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: Is there such a thing as compassionate political satire, a genre both withering and caressing, divertingly superficial and disturbingly deep? How about compassionate political satiric opera? It seems unlikely there will ever be many examples of such an improbable mutant. But should any brave artists choose to try their hands at this fantastical hybrid, they will be hard-pressed to top the mastery of the form demonstrated by Michael John LaChiusa in his "First Daughter Suite"...Much of what he brings to his consideration of the prisoners of Pennsylvania Avenue isn't so different from the idle, tabloid-fueled speculations you've surely had about what it must be like to be on such public display. But Mr. LaChiusa, also being a gifted composer with a deep purple streak, has set these speculations to music and let melody and imagination lead him into altitudes where caged songbirds can soar.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: Concentrating on the offspring of such recent chief executives as Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Bush, First Daughter Suite offers much of the same mixture of quirky humor and poignant reflection as the original. But also much like its predecessor, it displays more precocious cheekiness than depth. The production being presented by the Public Theater, where the original premiered, will best be appreciated by LaChiusa's ardent fans...Although the evening features plenty of emotionally and comically resonant moments along the way...FIRST DAUGHTER SUITE is ultimately too trivial and self-indulgent to register as much more than a curiosity. And while LaChiusa's lyrics are often witty, his recitative-heavy score is mostly tedious and repetitive, its high style too often jarring with the sophomoric silliness of the proceedings. Repeating her chores from the original, director Kirsten Sanderson applies a sure touch to the slight material and has elicited sterling performances from the ensemble.

Linda Winer, Newsday: More musically mature but no less audacious, this quartet of playlets about the girls in the White House -- and their mothers and their grandmothers -- is both a satirical and tender tribute to the parallel universe of history in, as Pat Nixon (Barbara Walsh) sings, "a house that will never be a home." Except for "Amy Carter's Fabulous Dream Adventure," which traps us for too long in the musical-comedy absurdity of a 12-year-old's dream, the brief pieces enchant and inform with an eclectic mix of post-Sondheim modernism, bluesy riffs and swingy styles that are very much his own. Imaginatively directed by Kirsten Sanderson, the terrific nine-woman cast...all have rich, expressive voices that, together, gleam in unusually stirring dramatic blends. In LaChiusa's deftly researched scenes, history makes a little wistful sense, too.

Jeremy Gerard, Deadline: Michael John LaChiusa's very moving and beautifully executed First Daughter Suite expands the portfolio of significant new works to come out of the East Village complex...Psychologically complex scenarios drawn with the concision of short stories and the gorgeously variegated musical textures of oratorio. LaChiusa is one of the most prolific composer/lyricists working in the theater today...FIRST DAUGHTER SUITE is absolutely enchanting, musically and dramatically. It's staged with mesmerizing delicacy by Kirsten Sanderson (direction) and Chase Brock (choreography) on Scott Pask's minimalist set and lighting by Tyler Micoleau that seamlessly transforms the atmosphere from the Eastern to California coasts. The musical lines have the swelling intensity of Schubert lieder while the words can attack like cherry bombs.

Matt Windman, AM New York: "FIRST DAUGHTER SUITE," a companion piece to his 1993 work "First Lady Suite," explores the wives and daughters of several recent presidents, with a critical eye and compassion for the stresses and strains that they endured..."FIRST DAUGHTER SUITE" may be uneven and tense, but it is often compelling. As in his other musicals, LaChiusa frequently plays around with style and tone to suit each character. Kristen Sanderson's intimate production is marked by high-powered performances from an all-female cast including Barbara Walsh, Caissie Levy, Betsy Morgan, Alison Fraser and Mary Testa. Given the strong possibility that a former first lady will soon return to the White House in a new capacity, which would allow a former first daughter to regain her old title, the show is certainly timely.

Jonathan Mandell, DC Theatre Scene: For all its lapses, First Daughter Suite offers great satisfactions. The most prominent of these is the wonderful all-female cast. Their golden, semi-operatic voices splendidly interpret LaChiusa's clever lyrics and lush art songs, the mostly sung-through score punctuated by everything from martial music to the blues to a snippet of marimba. The cast's spot-on acting inspires some genuinely moving moments...All nine actresses do such a stellar job that the joy in their performances is less in their impersonations of public figures as in their embodiments of breathing human beings.

Robert Hofler, The Wrap: In addition to being a great storyteller, LaChiusa knows how to pick his orchestrators, Michael Starobin and Bruce Coughlin. You may find yourself listening to the orchestra when you should be following the vocal line. Melody isn't always of prime concern, especially for composers of the 20th century. The problem here is that LaChiusa seems to be trying to write melodies, but even when he produces bubblegum music for the Amy Carter character, the tune falls flat. His vocal lines often features octave jumps that aren't so much dramatic as they are awkward, more discomforting than dissonant - especially for the performers. "Patti by the Pool" contains the most spoken dialogue, the least music, which is definitely for the better.

Jesse Green, Vulture: Like the M34 bus, Michael John LaChiusa never disappoints for long: If you don't enjoy one show, another will come by soon. At 53, he remains probably the most prolific of his cohort of theater composers, also writing his own lyrics and often his own books. In addition to his operas and song cycles and out-of-town experiments, eleven of his musicals have received full-scale New York productions, starting with First Lady Suite, at the Public, in 1993. By my taste buds, the results are delicious about half the time: I'm a fan of Hello Again, The Wild Party, and See What I Wanna See, among others. But even when I haven't warmed to his work I've admired it; his intent is never less than to use the full resources of the genre, and his own questing musical voice, to explore serious themes. If the execution is sometimes unconvincing, or baffling, it is never random or retrograde. (In a screed in Opera News in 2005, he derided most contemporary musicals as gutless retreads.) And if none of his works has been a socko financial hit, or even especially popular, for an uncompromising artist working in a luxury medium, a critical batting average of .500 is awfully good.

Robert Feldberg, Bergen Record: "First Daughter Suite" is very well sung, and has been nimbly directed in its varying moods by Kirsten Sanderson. And wig designer Robert-Charles Vallance superbly pinpoints the first ladies by their hairstyles. But, although an interesting example of serious musical theater, it's seldom compelling. You keep wondering why LaChiusa didn't include Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, which might have at least supplied a sense of immediacy.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

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