Review: Michael John LaChiusa's Dazzlingly Intelligent And Intriguing FIRST DAUGHTER SUITE

Michael John LaChiusa's dazzlingly intelligent and intriguing new chamber musical may be called First Daughter Suite, but it's the moms who steal the show.

And maybe that's for a good reason. The very public mother/daughter relationships these woman are thrust into are generally carefully controlled by the maternal parent in order to guard the public image of the presidential dad.

Structured similarly to his 1993 FIRST LADY SUITE, the evening is divided into four one-act vignettes, performed by a superb company under the deft direction of Kristen Sanderson, who helmed the previous effort.

The first scene offers a frazzled Julie Nixon (Betsy Morgan) on her wedding day, indecisive as to whether or not to move the outdoor ceremony inside when rain threatens. Her smarmy younger sister Tricia (Caissie Levy), already married, is highly amused and mother Pat (Barbara Walsh) prefers to leave such decision-making to her husband. But President Nixon, we learn, is in a serious meeting, perhaps having something to do with a burglary that was reported in The Washington Post. The spirit of President Nixon's mother, Hannah (Theresa McCarthy) offers wry observations. ("Of all my boys, even the two dead ones, Richard was the greatest disappointment.")

The second scene is a comical fantasia dreamed up by 12-year-old Amy Carter (Carly Tamer), set on board the presidential yacht. While mom Roslyn (Rachel Bay Jones) keeps herself occupied with a book, Betty Ford (Alison Fraser) is a party animal, wildly dancing around and getting wasted on cans of Billy Beer. Amy looks up to free-spirit Susan Ford (Morgan) as a cool first daughter, but Susan is still peeved about her dad losing the election.

Fraser may be a hoot as Betty Ford, but her calmly calculating Nancy Reagan is a chilling portrayal of a woman who fixes problems as needed while sustaining the illusion that her husband is in charge and guilt-free. Sitting poolside in a striking red swimming ensemble, she tries reconciling with her punk rocker daughter Patti Davis (Levy) after the publication of her first novel, a thinly veiled commentary on her own first family life, but what she really wants is to ensure that Patti will follow her rules when reporters ask about the Iran/Contra scandal.

The final scene has a stern and domineering Barbara Bush, angered by her son's performance during his first term as president ("Everything we worked for. Everything undone. All of it obscured by a mediocre son."), reluctant to comply with Laura Bush's (Rachel Bay Jones) request that she join the others on the campaign trail. The daughter in question is the adult spirit of her Robin (Theresa McCarthy), who died of leukemia at age three. Mary Testa delivers another one of her powerhouse performances as Barbara Bush, her stately and ruthless manner going against her sweet and supportive public image.

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.