Chicago-based Lucky Plush Productions will make its Cleveland, Ohio debut May 2-4 at the Allen Theatre in PlayhouseSquare with an evening length production of The Better Half, a lively, witty spin on the film noir classic "Gaslight".

Tickets for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening performances at 8 p.m. are available at the PlayhouseSquare ticket office, 216-241-6000 or online at www.playhousesquare.org.

This highly entertaining, original production is co-presented by DANCECleveland and the Cleveland Play House, as part of CPH's New Ground Theatre Festival. This is the first collaboration by these two art organizations.

The Better Half, which premiered in 2011 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, is a dance/theater work inspired by the 1944 film classic in which Ingrid Bergman plays a woman slowly driven mad by her conniving husband. Hailed by The Chicago Tribune as "one of the most accessible exercises in modern dance you'll ever see," The Better Half is a playful look at contemporary relationships, combining dance and theater in a work that is emotionally rich, funny and full of revealing surprises.

The production was co-created and co-directed by Lucky Plush's Artistic Director Julia Rhoads and Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, of 500 Clown, a Chicago troupe specializing in riotous deconstructions of serious classics, such as "Macbeth" and "Frankenstein". The multi-faceted cast of The Better Half will feature performers from both companies.

Since its founding by Rhodes in 1999, Lucky Plush has premiered over 30 original works including performance installations, two dance films and 10 evening-length productions. The company has been presented at Jacob's Pillow (MA), Steppenwolf Garage (IL), Joyce SoHo (NYC), among others.

Rhodes' independent work has been commissioned by Alaska DanceTheater, Mordine and Company and River North Chicago Dance Company. Her collaborative work with Lucky Plush has been awarded a National Dance Project Production Award and a National Performance Network Creation Fund Award, In 2010, she was named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch." She is a former member of San Francisco Ballet and collaborating ensemble member of XSIGHT! Performance Group, and she has been a guest artist with Beppie Blankert Danceworks, the Itinerant Theater Guild, and Baubo Performance Project.

For more information about Lucky Plush Productions, visit: www.luckyplush.com

DANCECleveland, a Cleveland, Ohio based non-profit, is one of a handful of presenters nationally that is dedicated solely to the presentation of modern and contemporary dance. The centerpiece of the organization's programming is its annual performance series. The performances are surrounded by an array of educational outreach events including artist-run master classes, residency programs, student matinees, pre-performance lectures and post-performance Q&A sessions, designed both to break artistic boundaries and provide community access to the dance aesthetic and dance luminaries that DANCECleveland brings to Northeast Ohio.

Cleveland Play House was founded in 1915 and is America's first professional regional theatre. Throughout its rich history, Cleveland Play House has remained dedicated to its mission to inspire, stimulate and entertain diverse audiences in Northeast Ohio by producing plays and theatre education programs of the highest professional standards. It has produced more than 100 world and/or American premieres, and over long history more than 12 million people have attended over 1,300 CPH productions. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Bloom and Managing Director Kevin Moore, Cleveland Play House looks toward its centennial while performing in three state-of-the art venues at PlayhouseSquare in downtown Cleveland.

Lucky Plush Productions. Photo © & courtesy of Karen Wade