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By Kenneth Jones
27 Jan 2005

Les Freres Corbusier, the Off-Off-Broadway theatre company that created last season's Obie Award-winning A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, examines the life and times of controversial New York City urban planning czar Robert Moses in its latest piece.

Boozy: The Life, Death, and Subsequent Vilification of Le Corbusier and, More Importantly, Robert Moses, created by Les Freres Corbusier, with original songs by Douglas J. Cohen, is directed by Alex Timbers and produced by Aaron Lemon-Strauss in association with The Center for Architecture.

Performances begin Feb. 13 toward an opening of Feb. 17 at the Ohio Theater, 66 Wooster Street, between Spring and Broome Streets.

"Amidst a blaze of streaming media, ridiculous choreography, and dozens of live fornicating rabbits, famed French architect Le Corbusier inspires builder Robert Moses in his desperate battle to recreate New York," the Off-Broadway company announced. "Boozy: The Life, Death, and Subsequent Vilification of Le Corbusier and, More Importantly, Robert Moses tracks the life of Robert Moses, from idealistic youth to unstoppable power broker, able to turn parched land into glorious bridges, highways, and public housing with a mere flick of the wrist. With guest appearances by Benito Mussolini, FDR, and the ghost of Baron von Haussmann, Moses learns from the greats until true power is finally his. Freemasons dance, FDR levitates, and Daniel Libeskind silently weeps. None shall be spared."

From 1924 to1968, Commissioner Robert Moses was the most powerful man in New York City, responsible for conceiving and completing public works costing $27 billion, including the Triborough Bridge, Jones Beach, the West Side Highway, Co-Op City, Shea Stadium, the Verrazano Bridge and Lincoln Center. Beloved and hated, the controversial figure at one point had a plan for highways to slice through lower Manhattan in what is now a thriving Soho (the neighborhood where Boozy is playing). To his dismay, grassroots groups and individuals — Jane Jacobs among them — helped stop his effort.

Les Freres Corbusier "is known for its exhaustively researched, topically relevant, comically avant-garde theatrical creations," discussing "academic issues in a theatrical frame that is both accessible for an everyday audience, and bizarrely educational."

Its last production, A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, transferred Off-Broadway, won an OBIE Award, and spawned a recent three-month run in Los Angeles as well as a cast album on Sh-K-Boom Records.

With Boozy, the company "finally takes on its namesake, the architect and city planner Le Corbusier. Despite its name, Les Freres Corbusier is not, in fact, French."

Alex Timbers (co-conceiver, director) is artistic director of Les Freres Corbusier and directs all of the company's works. He has directed at EST, PS 122, Judson Church, HERE, the John Houseman, and received a 2004 Obie for conceiving and directing the original New York production of Pageant. Timbers is a member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab, former President of the Yale University Dramat, and co-founded The Tank, a performing and visual arts space in Times Square.

The cast of Boozy includes Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum as Robert Moses, Nina Hellman as Jane Jacobs, Daniel Larlham as Le Corbusier, Ryan Karels as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Summerour as Fiorello LaGuardia, Keith Price as Baron Von Haussmann, Simon Feil as Joseph Goebbels, Ian Oldaker as Nelson Rockefeller, and an ensemble that includes Virginia Callaway, Matthew DeVriendt, Shareefah Hamilton, Scott Hoffer, Leslie Klug, Brian McTaminey, Elizabeth Meriwether, Max Miner, and Mary C. Wilson.

The scenic design is by David Evans Morris; costume design is by Jenny Mannis; lighting design is by Juliet Chia; video design is by Jacob Pinholster; sound design is by Bart Fasbender; choreography is by Katherine Profeta.

Original songs for Boozy are by Douglas J. Cohen, who wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway-bound musical The Opposite of Sex , which recently played at San Francisco's Magic Theatre.

The performance schedule is Wednesday through Sunday at 8 PM with special added performances on Feb. 14, Feb. 15 and March 1. The final performance of Boozy will be March 5.

Tickets are $15 general admission and may be purchased at www.boozyshow.com or by phoning (212) 868-4444. For more information, visit www.lesfreres.org.

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