New York: Barack Obama has kept a relatively low profile since leaving office last month, and he largely avoided the spotlight Friday night — at least as much as a former president can when he is attending a Broadway show.
Shortly after the lights went down at the American Airlines Theatre, there was a blur and the brief shining of a flashlight. Three people quickly took their seats several rows back from the stage: Obama; his eldest daughter, Malia; and Valerie Jarrett, who was a senior adviser to the president.
A woman sitting nearby let out a small yelp, but most of the audience at the revival of Arthur Miller’s ‘The Price’ did not realize they were watching a Broadway show with someone who was, until recently, the most powerful person in the world. The play, starring Mark Ruffalo, Danny DeVito, Jessica Hecht and Tony Shalhoub, centres on two estranged brothers and their quest to reconnect.
Laralyn Mowers, 37, who lives in Queens, was sitting five seats to the right of Obama but did not realise he was there until a friend told her at intermission. “I had a really bad day, and it all just changed.”
Obama wore glasses during the show. At one point during the second act, he and his daughter sat in identical poses: right hands pressed to their chins while intently observing the drama before them. Just before intermission, again in darkness, Obama, his daughter and Jarrett were whisked backstage to greet the cast and to take pictures with the crew. Once more, most of the crowd was oblivious to his presence.
After the play ended, the Obamas and Jarrett joined the crowd in a standing ovation for the cast, the most visible they had been all night. Minutes later, they were gone.
During the performance, a line from DeVito’s character, a furniture dealer, about the federal government’s being unreliable drew the biggest laugh of the night. Obama sat stone-faced.
“He said that he was happy that it was while he was not in office,” Ruffalo said during an interview after the show.
