Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman's 'HERE'S HOOVER!' Workshop Begins Tonight in NYC

Les Freres Corbusier has announced its return to off-off-Broadway with a special workshop production of Here's Hoover! The Historic Herbert Hoover 2014 Comeback Special, written by Sean Cunningham, with songs by Michael Friedman and directed by Alex Timbers, beginning tonight, December 5 at 8:00 pm at Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street. The workshop production runs through Sunday, December 21.

After stewing for 80 years in political disgrace (and presumed death), Herbert Hoover takes the stage one more time to reclaim his legacy and save America in the process. Elvis Presley's iconic 1968 "Comeback Special" serves as direct inspiration for Hoover's own interactive, badass concert resurrection. Herbert's tanned, rested, and ready to rock your balls off.

Les Freres Corbusier continues its investigation and irreverent decimation of iconic historical figures here with our nation's 31st president. Past subjects have included Robert Moses, L. Ron Hubbard, Andrew Jackson, Henrik Ibsen, Benjamin Franklin, Warren G. Harding, Le Corbusier, and Satan.

The cast of Here's Hoover! includes Damian Baldet (Herbert Hoover), James Barry (Scotty), Alex Boniello (DJ), Erica Dorfler (Lucille), James Nathan Hopkins (Wallace), Talene Monahon (Sheila), and Lawrence Tobias (Harry S. Truman).

The set design for Here's Hoover! is by Amanda Stephens; costume design is by Paloma Young and Ásta Hostetter; lighting design is by Jake DeGroot; sound design is by Cody Spencer; Projection Design by Daniel Brodie and Jake Pinholster. Choreography is by Danny Mefford; Sally Cade Holmes is producing. Here's Hoover! was developed as part of La Jolla Playhouse's Page to Stage series. Because this is a workshop production, it will not be open for review.

Sean Cunningham's plays include the Drama Desk-nominated God Hates the Irish (which Mike Nichols called "theater as it should be: daring, subversive, and violently funny") and the Sherlock Holmes and The Secret of Making Whoopee two-parter: all three shows featured scores by the unstoppable Michael Friedman. He is affiliated with companies including the Civilians and Les Freres Corbusier; his work has been produced in places ranging from La Jolla Playhouse to an isolated bandshell in Northern Ireland. His screenwriting career has taken him from Buenos Aires to Luxembourg and he has served as a writer and editor for a bizarre variety of publications ranging from the ASME- and Webby-winning LIFE.com to Maxim for Kids (really), where he interviewed everyone from Oscar winners to members of the Wu-Tang Clan. He is the Editorial Director of Chance, the theater design magazine that somehow manages to be an actual print publication. He graduated from Princeton University and received the ASCAP Cole Porter Prize from Yale Drama School.

Michael Friedman's musicals include The Fortress of Solitude; Love's Labour's Lost; Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson; and Saved. As a founding associate artist of the Civilians, he has written music and lyrics for numerous shows; the latest, Pretty Filthy, opens in January 2015. He is also co-author (with Steve Cosson) of Paris Communeand wrote music for Anne Washburn's Mr. Burns. In 2007, Friedman received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, and in 2010, Lincoln Center presented an American Songbook concert of his compositions.

Damien Baldet Broadway: Machinal (Roundabout Theatre Company) Theatre: Disney's The Lion King (West End, US National Tour, Las Vegas); as an Associate Artist of the Obie Award winning company, The Civilians: The Great Immensity at The Public Theatre, Gone Missing, Nobody's Lunch, Paris Commune, Canard Canard Goose. Other work includes: Hoover Comes Alive!, Blood Wedding, and Sweet Bird of Youth at La Jolla Playhouse; A Murder, A Mystery and a Marriage at Two River Theatre Company; Attempts On Her Life, and Frankenstein at Soho Rep; Pugilist at Barrow St. Theatre, Hapless with the Joe Goode Performance Group, Henry VIII at New Jersey Shakespeare Festival; and others. MFA: USCD; BFA: CCM.

Alex Timbers is Artistic Director of Les Freres Corbusier. With Les Freres: A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant (OBIE Award), Boozy, Heddatron, Hell House (Drama Desk Award nomination), Dance Dance Revolution, Love's Labour's Lost (developed in collaboration with Public Theater, Drama Desk nomination). Broadway: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (also LFC, Drama Desk, Lortel, OCC Awards, Tony Award nomination), The Pee-wee Herman Show (HBO), Peter and the Starcatcher (OBIE Award, Tony Award nomination, co-director), Rocky (Drama Desk and OCC nominations). Off-Broadway: Gutenberg! (Drama Desk nomination.), Here Lies Love (Lortel Award, Drama Desk and OCC nominations).

Les Freres Corbusier creates aggressively visceral theatre, combining historical revisionism, multimedia excess, found texts, sophomoric humor, and rigorous academic research. The company is committed to the notion of a Populist Theater that draws on prevailing tastes and comedic sensibilities to speak directly to the mainstream audience routinely ignored by the American Theater. Les Freres' past work includes Dance Dance Revolution, Love's Labour's Lost (developed in collaboration with the Public Theater), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Hell House, Heddatron, Boozy, and A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, as well as several concert and dance pieces.

Here's Hoover! The Historic Herbert Hoover 2014 Comeback Special plays Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm and Saturday and Sunday at 3pm at Abrons Arts Center's Underground Theatre, 466 Grand Street on the Lower East Side. There is no matinee on Saturday, December 6 or Sunday, December 7. There are added evening performances on Sunday, December 7 and Tuesday, December 16, both at 8pm. The closing date is Sunday, December 21. The nearest subway stations to the Abrons Arts Center are Delancey Street (F train), Essex Street (J, M trains), Grand Street (D, B trains). Tickets are $18. Limited "Hoover Zone" tickets will be sold for $15. You may purchase by visiting www.abronsartscenter.org. For more information, visit www.lesfreres.org.

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