Inside Malia Obama’s awesome NYC summer

As the audience settled into their seats at a recent matinee preview of Broadway’s hottest musical, “Hamilton,” they spotted some unexpectedly high-wattage company, even for New York: President Obama and his daughters, Sasha and Malia — the latter of whom has been spotted all over the city this summer.
The crowd went nuts, snapping photos and cheering. And during intermission, the headliners of the hip-hop-infused show were just as star-struck as the audience. Daveed Diggs, who plays Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette, says the Obamas came to meet the cast during the break.
“[We] dropped the curtain and they came onstage,” Diggs tells The Post. “Malia was warm, friendly — she was perfect! Just like her father!”
It’s official: New York City is obsessed with Malia!
The president’s older daughter, who turned 17 on the Fourth of July, is the city’s hippest resident this summer — from her internship on the set of HBO’s “Girls” to her on-trend choices of outfits, eateries and entertainment.

In marked contrast to the rarefied circles in which Chelsea Clinton and the Bush daughters traveled, this first daughter seems comfortable alternating between high-end outings with her family and the kind of low-key existence any savvy city teen would enjoy (albeit with a required Secret Service detail).
Sure, she’ll hit Gramercy’s acclaimed Stephen Starr restaurant Upland and take a stroll through Central Park when the president is in town, as she did earlier this month. But when he’s gone, she leans toward more downtown fare, like her casual meals with pals at Nolita’s Ruby’s Cafe (where she left more than a 30 percent tip, staff reported) and Bleecker Kitchen & Co., plus checking out indie films like “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” which she caught with friends at the West Village’s IFC cinema. She also recently dined at subterranean Soho staple La Esquina with a group that included former White House chef Sam Kass.
During her dad’s visit, Malia went on a private after-hours tour of the Whitney Museum — but she and younger sister Sasha also took their own trip to the Met during regular hours, where guides reported that they didn’t ask for any special treatment.

Despite trying to be a normal teen, though, Malia’s always got the Secret Service guys around her.
“Typically, four agents would be with her, and two outside,” says Ronald Kessler, author of “The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents.”

He adds that the security detail has no say in where she goes, though: “Many times when they go out, they [will] make reservations under a fake name, but generally they go out on surprise without any prior notice. Then the agents would check out employees and sit at different tables, and have agents posted outside, as well … as have an agent watch the food be prepared before it is served.”
And what about taking the L train to work?
“The subway would be out of the question,” Kessler says. “There would not be enough security to keep them protected.”

[Malia is] comfortable alternating between high-end outings with family and the low-key existence any savvy city teen would enjoy.

Security around the presidential teen is intense; no one knows where she’s staying, though her work on the Brooklyn set of “Girls” suggests that perhaps she’s temporarily residing in that hip borough.
Better yet, we New Yorkers might eventually get her here full-time: Malia, whose dad has said she’s interested in majoring in film studies, was spotted touring NYU and Columbia with her mother earlier this year.
“I hope she does come,” says NYU sophomore Tiara Taylor, 18. “I know they visited New York recently and checked it out. If she comes, it’d be pretty great. We have a really good film program.”
Malia, a high school senior who attends Washington’s private Sidwell Friends School, already has a good head start on connections in the entertainment world. There’s been some speculation that, in addition to her gofer role on the “Girls” set, she might be in line for an appearance on the show.
Before her internship with Lena Dunham, whom she first met during the “Girls” creator’s White House visit in 2013, Malia spent her last summer vacation working as a production assistant on the Steven Spielberg-created, LA-based CBS series “Extant,” which stars Halle Berry.
Working in the image-conscious entertainment industry seems to suit the stylish teen.
NYU freshman Danasia Hicklin, 18, thinks Malia’s a good sartorial role model. “I like her style,” she says. “I think she’s a trendsetter.”

Indeed, from her choices in T-shirts (a selfie featuring her in a shirt from Brooklyn hip-hop collective Pro Era caught fire online earlier this year) to attire for formal occasions, Malia’s gotten high praise from both her peers and the fashion world.
“She’s a young woman who exudes both strength and beauty, just like her mother,” says Stacey Bendet, CEO of Alice + Olivia, whose sunflower dress Malia was spied wearing in June as she arrived in London with her family.
She also got high marks from Kate Spade New York’s president, Deborah Lloyd, for her choice of that label’s red lace dress for a visit to 10 Downing Street in London.
“The bright color and the feminine silhouette made her look polished, while remaining youthful,” Lloyd says. “Her outfit was effortlessly pulled together with a simple pair of flats; she looked natural and beautiful.” Vogue.com concurred, calling her look “a clear inheritance of fashion-forward dressing.”
With style like that, how long can she possibly stay in DC?
Of course, as the summer winds down, Malia will have to head home for school — but it must be looking awfully dull compared to her whirlwind season with us in NYC. Here’s hoping she’ll be back soon.
Additional reporting by Barbara Hoffman, Timothy Mitchell and Haley Goldberg