“Tea for Three: Lady Bird, Pat & Betty” reveals life and love in the White House.

What is it like for a woman when her husband becomes the president of the United States — and she is suddenly thrust into the spotlight? This witty, sly and deeply moving script explores the hopes, fears and loves of Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Betty Ford. In three scenes taking place in the family quarters of the White House just prior to the end of living there as the wife of a president, each of the women confides alone to the audience. Secrets are spilled about their early years, their husbands’ rise to power, their romances with the men, their unique paths as wives in the White House, and their feelings about imminent retirement. Lady Bird Johnson, while preparing a tea for Pat Nixon, defends her husband’s quirks but finally admits to herself, “Politics is his oxygen.” Mrs. Nixon, drinking tea alone in her room on the eve of her husband’s resignation, works on her mail, picks at her food and guardedly recalls happier times before exploding in anger about Watergate and the political world. Betty Ford is discovered reading a Time Magazine in her bathrobe. Forestalling preparations for tea with Rosalyn Carter, Betty lightheartedly recalls past escapades, but eventually admits to being quite lost about life after the White House. Defiantly pushing back the fear, she sails out the door to meet Mrs. Carter. Each of the three portraits becomes intimate, by degrees, as the women wrestle with what Pat Nixon called “the hardest unpaid job in the world.”

Emmy Award-winning actress Elaine Bromka, with over 30 years in film, television, Broadway and Off-Broadway, starred as eight First Ladies opposite Rich Little in the PBS show The Presidents. Intrigued by their stories, she went on with playwright Eric H. Weinberger to create this one-woman show.

Performances are set for May 11 at 3 and 7 p.m. and May 12 at 3 p.m.

Click here for tickets.