1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (musical)

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Leonard Bernstein, was a legendary Broadway flop in 1976, running only seven performances. The musical focused on the first one hundred years of the White House from the points of view of the Presidents and First Ladies, as well as the perspectives of the black servants. The musical was originally performed as a play-within-a-play, with actors stepping out of character to comment on the plot. And throughout the show, one actor portrayed all the presidents (on Broadway, Ken Howard), while one actress portrayed all the First Ladies.

Discouraged by the critical and public response -- and angry that much of his music was condensed and edited without his consent during out-of-town rehearsals -- Bernstein refused to allow a cast recording of the musical. After his death in 1990 (Lerner having died in 1986), Bernstein's children and associates sifted through the many variations and revisions of the score, and authorized a choral version entitled A White House Cantata. BBC radio broadcast the London debut of this work in 1997, and three years later Deutsche Gramophone released a CD recording.

While 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue does not rank with either Bernstein or Lerner's best work, the score contains several impressive songs including "Take Care of This House," "The President Jefferson March" and "To Make Us Proud."

The only significant revival of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was a 1992 Indiana University production, which used an earlier draft of Lerner's script and included large sections of Bernstein's music which didn't make it to Broadway.