Theater Crowd Gives President Standing Ovation

President Bush, the First Lady and daughter Dorothy LeBlond went to the theater Thursday night to see a new comedy about three widows.

The nearly full house at the Kennedy Center for “The Cemetery Club” by Ivan Menchell gave Bush a standing ovation before the curtain went up as he waved from his seat and shook hands with a couple in a box adjacent to his center presidential box.

The play, starring Eileen Heckart, Elizabeth Franz and Doris Belack, is about three women who get together monthly to visit the graves of their husbands. It features a set that transforms from a living room to a cemetery and back again in a few seconds.

One line might appeal to grandmothers, including Mrs. Bush, on pointers for grandparents: “You don’t need any. You just sit back and enjoy them and watch them do to your children what your children did to you.”

With the President were his campaign press secretary, Shiela Tate, and her husband Bill; Transportation Department official Julie Andrews, and Susy Peake, who worked for Bush when he was vice president and Greg Petersmeyer, head of the Office of National Service and Points of Light.