La Jolla Playhouse Presents Page To Stage Production Of HOOVER COMES ALIVE! September 8-13

La Jolla Playhouse is pleased to present HOOVER COMES ALIVE!, by Sean Cunningham, with songs by Michael Friedman, and directed by Alex Timbers (Peter and the Starcatchers), running September 8 - 13, 2009 in the Mandell Weiss Forum. HOOVER COMES ALIVE! is a Page To Stage presentation, as well as part of The Playhouse's The Edge series.

After stewing for 70 years in political disgrace (and presumed death), Herbert Hoover is taking the stage one last time - to reclaim his legacy and save America in the process. Elvis' classic 1968 "Comeback Special" serves as inspiration for Hoover's own interactive, rock-infused resurrection. This time he's going to successfully pull us out of our economic Waterloo, come hell or high water. Award-winning company Les Freres Corbusier celebrates the checkered legacy of one of our most vilified presidents in this uproarious new concert performance piece.

"Les Freres Corbusier brings Playhouse audiences their hilarious reinvention of Herbert Hoover in a delightfully irreverent musical gem that is perfectly suited to both our Page To Stage and EDGE programs," said Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley.

"Les Freres has always been interested in investigating historical subjects for truths about today," said Timbers. "When we began working on a Herbert Hoover show two years ago, we never thought we would be presenting it during this second economic Depression. And we can't imagine a more fun way to discuss Hoover and American economic history then through the lens of a classic rock concert, Elvis' 1968 Comeback Special. It takes a daring and innovative artistic leader like Christopher Ashley to produce the work of a New York-based experimental theater group and we couldn't be more excited to be at La Jolla Playhouse."

The cast features Damian Baldet as "Herbert Hoover" and Jim Mooney as "Harry S. Truman," as well as UC San Diego graduate students Marshel Adams as "Lucille," Maren Bush as "Sheila," Ross Crain as "Scotty," and Patrick Riley as "DJ."

The production team includes Alex Timbers, director; Cris O'Bryon, music director/conductor; Kristin Ellert, scenic designer; Paloma Young, costume designer; Stephen Sakowski, lighting designer; Toby Algya, sound designer; Jake Pinholster, projection designer.

The Playhouse is offering a special $5 ticket price for cushion seating in the first three rows (the "Fan Zone"), for those who want the full "Elvis Comeback Special" experience right at the foot of the stage. Regular seating is $25 or $20 for La Jolla Playhouse subscribers. All seats are general admission. Tickets are available by calling the La Jolla Playhouse Box Office at (858) 550-1010 or online at www.lajollaplayhouse.org.

Performance times for HOOVER COMES ALIVE! are Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 pm; Thursday and Friday at 8:00 pm; Saturday at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm; and Sunday at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm.

HOOVER COMES ALIVE! is sponsored, in part, by U.S. Bank.

The award-winning Les Freres Corbusier creates aggressively visceral theatre, combining historical revisionism, multimedia excess, found texts, sophomoric humor and rigorous academic research. They are devoted to the notion of a populist theatre that draws on prevailing tastes and comedic sensibilities to speak directly to the mainstream audience continually ignored by the American theatre. Les Freres rejects the shy music, seamless dramaturgy, and muted performance style of the 20th century in favor of the anarchic, the rude, the juvenile, the spectacle. Their works include The Franklin Thesis, President Harding Is a Rock Star, A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, among others.

Now in its eighth year, Page To Stage is La Jolla Playhouse's signature new play development program in which audiences experience the "birth" of a play. Throughout the rehearsals and run of the show, the playwright and director make constant changes in response to audience reactions and feedback. Encompassing commissions, readings and workshop productions, Page To Stage serves the specific needs of a project at all stages in its evolution, helping artists take their work to the next level of development. Previous Page To Stage productions include The Night Watcher, The Farnsworth Invention, Zhivago, the Tony Award-winning 700 Sundays, The Burning Deck, Current Nobody, I Think I Like Girls and I Am My Own Wife, which went on to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The Edge series brings to La Jolla Playhouse the most cutting-edge, challenging and provocative theatre being created today. Supported by The James Irvine Foundation and the Jordan Ressler Endowment Fund, The Edge encompasses bold new work by the world's most innovative theatre artists who are changing theatrical forms, integrating new technology or looking at our world in completely new ways.

The nationally-acclaimed, Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is renowned for its tradition of creating the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre. The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and is considered one of the most well-respected not-for-profit theatres in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, including Big River, The Who's Tommy, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Walk in the Woods, Dracula, Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Jersey Boys, The Farnsworth Invention, Cry-Baby, 33 Variations and Memphis. Located on the UCSD campus, La Jolla Playhouse is made up of three primary performance spaces: the Mandell Weiss Theatre, the Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre, and the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse, a state-of-the-Art Theatre complex which features the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.

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