TV REVIEW : ‘In Performance at White House’ Offers an Entertainment Grab Bag

The first “In Performance at the White House” of the Bush Administration (tonight at 9 on Channels 28 and 15, and at 10 on Channels 24 and 50) was developed around the theme “The House I Live In,” referring both to the Executive Mansion, where the concerts are taped, and to the country. Simon Estes sings the song of that title, and the opening credits take us through a montage of typical American houses, including the White House.

Host John Denver exclaims: “This must be the only country in the world where the chief lives and works in a house that’s continuously open to the public . . . and I think that’s pretty far out.”

Even farther out is the notion of extending this theme to justify a ragtime sequence featuring pianist Joshua Rifkin and actors-singers Barry Bostwick and Judy Kaye. The sort of house that bred ragtime was initially a house of prostitution--as Denver obliquely notes.

However, the thematic integrity of this sequence is salvaged when Bostwick reads an evocative passage from E. L. Doctorow’s “Ragtime”--and suddenly the larger meaning of the entire country as “our house,” and its association with ragtime, becomes clear.

Despite this attempt to unify the evening under a theme, musically it remains a grab bag. Besides the jaunty strains of ragtime, it offers the booming Estes, rolling his r ‘s rather pretentiously in “Without a Song,” and Denver strumming his way through three of his own hits.

(Actually, his “Rocky Mountain High” is the most politically daring statement of the evening. The lyrics criticize those who “try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more . . . more people, more scars upon the land.”)

The concert is a pleasant time-passer, and it’s fun to speculate on what the President and Mrs. Bush are saying to each other as they applaud after each song.

John Musilli is the executive producer, David Deutsch directed, and Dick Hyman is the musical director.