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New York. President Barack Obama made good on a campaign promise to his most important supporter over the over the weekend — his wife, Michelle.

The president and first lady jetted to a date in New York late Saturday afternoon, aides and media in tow, returning to the White House early on Sunday morning.

In a statement an aide read to the press, Obama said he was “taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished.”

After dining a little more than two hours at Blue Hill, a West Village restaurant, the president and first lady headed to the Belasco Theater to make it in time for “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”

The play by August Wilson is about black America in the early 1900s, with residents of a boardinghouse recalling their migration from the sharecropping farms of the South to the industrialized North.

As the motorcade left the West Village and drove up Sixth Avenue to the theater, crowds of people gathered on the sidewalks of the blockaded streets to wave as the Obamas passed. Some cheered. Cab drivers opened their doors and stood on the frames of their taxis to glimpse the president and first lady.

The Obamas left the theater after the play and were greeted by more cheers from bystanders along New York streets as they headed back for the flight home.

The White House declined to say how much the trip was costing taxpayers, and even before the smaller jet left Washington, the there-and-back trip drew criticism from the Republican National Committee. The RNC issued a news release that chastised Obama for saying he understands American’s troubles, but then hopping up to New York for “a night on the town.”

Noting that General Motors is expected to file for Chapter 11 protection on Monday, the news release said: “Putting on a show: Obamas wing into the city for an evening out while another iconic American company prepares for bankruptcy.”

Associated Press