They are probably one of America’s most celebrated couples, but how Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis got to that stage is little-known.
Now, thanks to a musical put on film about their first two years together, their courtship that started at Dutch’s favorite Hollywood restaurant is about to go national.
In a Booth at Chasen’s tells their fun-loving and sometimes rocky relationship in lively dialogue and song and ends with Davis’ urging to get married.
The privately funded musical debuted last week at the Kennedy Center to Reagan friends and aides, including former national security adviser Bud McFarlane and former Attorney General Edwin Meese.
“You got it right,” Nancy Reagan’s former chief of staff, James Rosebush, told film director Kate Cole.
“It’s hard for me to imagine him singing,” snarked Meese, who agreed that the project nailed the relationship, including the importance of Chasen’s to Reagan.
The love story that starts on a blind date, Nov. 15, 1949, stars Kelley Dorney as Davis and Brent Schindele as Reagan.
Producers hope to raise money through sponsorships to take it on a national tour.
