George H.W. Bush Hoped to See Hamilton with His Wife; Today the Cast Treated Him to Private Concert

Tierney McAfee
Updated

Before Barbara Bush died at 92 on April 17, she and her husband of 73 years, former President George H.W. Bush, had long looked forward to seeing the hit Broadway musical Hamilton during the show’s run in Houston, Bush’s spokesman, Jim McGrath, tells PEOPLE now.

Sadly, the former first lady passed away before she got a chance to see the show. But on Tuesday, the cast and crew of Hamilton brought “complete joy” to a grieving widower when they put on a private concert for the former president in his Houston office.

Bush, 93, spent nearly two weeks in the hospital following his beloved wife’s funeral on April 21. He was released from Houston Methodist Hospital on May 4 after receiving treatment for an infection, and on Tuesday he took to Twitter to share photos from the Hamilton concert.

“A complete joy to welcome the ‘HamFam’ — the cast and crew of @HamiltonMusical — to our Houston office for a special performance I will never forget,” the former president tweeted. “History never sounded so powerful.”

George H.W. Bush (center) and the cast and crew of <em>Hamilton</em>
George H.W. Bush (center) and the cast and crew of Hamilton
George H.W. Bush (right) and the cast and crew of <em>Hamilton</em>
George H.W. Bush (right) and the cast and crew of Hamilton

McGrath tells PEOPLE that Bush “was so taken with this very special performance — and the cast — that he wants to try to go see the entire production before their Houston runs ends this coming Sunday.”

Fans on Twitter were happy to see the 41st president looking well after his recent hospitalization and his wife’s death.

Tuesday marked the first sighting of Bush since his wife’s funeral in College Station, Texas. The cast of Hamilton performed for the former president before staging its touring show in downtown Houston, Houston ABC affiliate KTRK reported.

Bush was “broken-hearted to lose his beloved Barbara,” the former president’s longtime chief of staff Jean Becker said in in a statement shortly after Mrs. Bush’s death.

“He held her hand all day today and was at her side when [she] left this good earth,” Becker said of the day Mrs. Bush passed away.

The former president was hospitalized on April 23, less than 24 hours after laying his wife to rest. At the time, he was in intensive care for “an infection that spread to his blood,” Bush’s spokesman said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

McGrath later released a statement announcing Bush’s discharge from the hospital on May 4, saying, “His doctors report he is doing well and is happy to return home.”