Lucky Plush
Photo Illustration: Alex Fine; Photos: Cheryl Mann

What if Wonder Woman needed a board of directors to approve her missions or Batman consulted an image expert before taking to the streets? Sounds bizarre, right? That’s why Julia Rhoads, producing artistic director of Lucky Plush Productions, chose the idea as the basis for a new show. A fan of graphic novels, Rhoads drew on the genre and on her own experience running Lucky Plush, a nonprofit dance-theater company, for Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip. A hybrid of modern dance and physical theater (plus killer visuals that transform the stage into a comic book), Trip the Light Fantastic follows washed-up superheroes trying to reinvent themselves through a think tank. “They want to do good in the world,” says Rhoads, whose choreography shifts from goofy, oversize movements to elegant duets. “But when you talk about real-world problems, you realize they are quite different than good and evil.” Unlike traditional comic book superheroes, these characters fight over bylaws, mission statements, and branding, because in reality, Rhoads says, “it just takes so much work to do something good.”

GO Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip premieres March 3 at the Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph St. $10 to $55. harristheaterchicago.org