The First Family went on a weekend Broadway Binge March 1, seeing Rent on the matinee together. President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton moved on to Chicago at the evening performance, while daughter Chelsea and three friends saw Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk.

Best moment of the day: when the Chicago chorus begins to sing the number "All I Care About Is Love," whose opening line consists of the scantily-clad murderesses moaning "We want Billy" -- the male lead in the show, Billy Flynn, that is.

The trip was a presidential present to ballet student Chelsea on her 17th birthday. For her 16th, she had seen Les Miserables in Washington DC.

The presidential motorcade seriously snarled traffic in Times Square all of Saturday, and audience members going into the Nederlander to see Rent had to pass through a Secret Service security cordon that closed off two blocks of West 41st

Street. Those inside got to see Clinton go on stage after the final curtain and shake hands with each member of the cast. Idina Menzel, who plays performance artist Maureen, persuaded the Commander-in-Chief to moo like a cow -- as she does with the entire audience as part of her show-within-a-show. Clinton called "powerful" the Pulitzer-winning musical chronicling penniless, AIDS-stricken musicians, artists and poets on Manhattan's contemporary East Village.