THEATRE + COMEDY

I'm Ready Productions and the Hobby Center present Je'Caryous Johnson's Cheaper To Keep Her. BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: Jacaryous Johnson's "Cheaper To Keep Her" premiering Mother's Day Weekend – May 6 – 7.

When a married couple is ready to call it quits, they always want different things. Raymond Mays wants a divorce and Morgan Mays wants alimony.

When Raymond hires his best friend Joey to be his lawyer, and Morgan hires her catty cousin Koren as counsel, a legal boxing match explodes over their divorce. When the fed-up Judge bangs her gavel, she decides Morgan doesn't deserve half... she deserves it all. Morgan gets everything—the house, Raymond’s retirement, and some would say even his self-esteem, leaving him with nothing but the thought; it would have been cheaper to keep her.

Determined not to be defeated, Raymond and his best friend discover they have two options to prevent him from paying alimony: kill Morgan or get her married off to someone else. When Morgan's first love, Brian Reynolds, sets his sights on sneaking back into her life, Raymond feels Brian is the perfect solution to his situation. Raymond's plan backfires when Brian's cockiness causes a competitive catastrophe forcing Raymond to confront his feelings, and to discover he still cares about his wife.

As ex-husband and ex-love face off with each other, broken hearts will get revenge, karma could kill, and infidelity can become infectious as hearts and marital matrimony collide only to discover whether it's cheaper to keep her or easier to love her as his wife.

The eleventh play in a series of box office breaking, critically acclaimed stage plays from NAACP Award-winning writer and director Je'Caryous Johnson, Cheaper to Keep Her stars R&B sensation Brian McKnight and multi-faceted actress Vivica A. Fox.

Brian McKnight is no stranger to I'm Ready Productions. In 2005, McKnight toured with the I'm Ready play Cheaters. He has released 13 albums to date, seven of them have gone platinum, with several going two and three times platinum. McKnight has sold over 20 million albums worldwide. His achievements have landed him numerous awards including the Soul Train Award, NAACP Image Award, as well as 16 Grammy nominations. His newest album, "Evolution of a Man," was released in Oct. 2009.

Vivica A. Fox also has been tapped for a previous I'm Ready production. In 2008, Fox was honored at the NAACP Theater Awards where she received the prestigious Spirit Award for starring in the I'm Ready stage play Whatever She Wants, alongside Boris Kodjoe and Richard Roundtree. In 2005 and 2006, Fox won the NAACP Image Award and the Prism Award for Best Actress in a television series drama. She was also honored with a Trumpet Award for Outstanding Career Achievements in Film. In 2003, she was honored with the Lady of Soul Lena Horne Career Achievement Award.

Most recently, Fox has teamed up with TV Land Prime to host the reality series "The Cougar." In April of 2009, Fox returned to her crime-solving roots as an FBI Agent in pursuit of a serial killer in the suspense thriller "Junkyard Dogs." In 2007, Fox co-starred as Larry David's new house guest in HBO's hit comedy, "Curb Your Enthusiasm." She also co-starred with Jessica Simpson, Cheri Oteri and Steve Guttenberg in the upcoming feature comedy, "Major Movie Star." Switching to a dramatic role, Fox co-starred in "Cover," a film directed by Bill Duke and based on a true story about the effects of HIV and AIDS in the African-American community.

For more information please visit www.imreadyproductions.com.