Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...But Burning Bluebeard pushes beyond its title: In a final tableau the sextet are granted a happy rather than hideous ending, with the wife killer Bluebeard properly disposed of (as the children on December 30, 1903 never got to see). For one more night — and nine seasons so far — The Ruffians’ art, a salute to thespians past and future, has triumphed over the Iroquois Theatre’s senseless slaughter. The purgation works: In perhaps their finest offering ever, The Ruffians deliver a “gift” for Chicagoans whether they deserve it or not."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Recommended
"...Let's Play, 'Recommend' Chicago's Holiday Legend a haunting tale, of The Ruffians Burning Bluebeard, where a fake moonlight sparked real flames. We suggest you read up on the history of The Iroquois Theatre and this play so you can understand its totality. "
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"... If you prefer watching the tragic rather than the magic of Christmas, then “Burning Bluebeard”, written by Jay Torrence and directed by Halena Kays, is sure to ignite your interest. Funny, macabre, and frightfully delightful, the performance tells the story of the inferno at the Iroquois Theater, in Chicago, during the Wednesday matinee of “Bluebeard”, a children’s show playing on December 30, 1903. The modern retelling is largely a prologue to the second act of the original musical, where audience members were caught in an electrical fire followed by a stampede, and then burned alive."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Every component works in sync for this production, directed with fierce showmanship by Halana Kays, and supported by a team of magically gifted theatrical artists. The actors in this year's remount are terrific and together create a must-see production, a surreal interpretation of one of Illinois' most tragic historical events, that's impossible to forget."
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...The Ruffians theater troupe recounts this tale - seminal to Chicago's theater communit - in Burning Bluebeard, in a truly inspired production. The performance incorporates dance, music, mime, acrobatics, in a that evokes the atmospheric gymnastics of Cirque de Soleil, or perhaps even more the defunct Red Moon Theater for those who remember it). Let's say from the start Burning Bluebeard is entrancing, mesmerizing, and something not to be missed."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...New this year is BURNING BLUEBEARD on Porchlight's stage. The change takes the already terrific show up several rungs. The show benefits from being in a traditional theatre setting. The arched remains of "Sunset Boulevard" (Scenic Designer Jeff Kmiec) is the perfect backdrop. An exit through a stage door is lit with a surreal radiance (Lighting Designer Maggie Fullilove-Nugent). The strongest effect from the alternative stage is it's uncomfortably easier to imagine that chaotic 15 minutes experienced by the audience. From my middle seat perch, I'm overly aware of where the exit signs are."
Chicagoland Musical Theatre - Highly Recommended
"...Daring director Halena Kays wisely, expertly guides the interactive show from the bizarre to the beautiful to the breaking, and then back ‘round the other way. Jay Torrence’s titanic script is a madcap multigenre experiment that works without a hitch due to its roots in real emotion, regret, and quixotic hope. Together, true to theatrical traditions, Kays and Torrence work a gag a minute. Burning Bluebeard brilliantly takes big beats from vaudeville, pantomime, Lip Sync Battle and even Icelandic techno as its delightfully deranged veers between merry and melancholic on its masterfully-crafted descent into madness and ascent into forgiveness"
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...In its restaging of Mr Bluebeard, the Ruffians incorporate many elements typically found in pantomimes of the time, including silent scenes consisting only of dancing or some sort of physical movement, slapstick, audience participation, cross-dressing, risque humor, gags, and exquisite use of contemporary songs. The latter is pitch perfect: the contained chaos of Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit" in the early moments foreshadows what is to follow. It feels right too that the opening piano chords of John Lennon's wistful "Imagine" seamlessly morphs into the cynicism of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab.""
Chicago Theater and Arts - Recommended
"...Though there are a few slow spots early on as we are trying to understand where the plot line is headed, the talented cast excels at telling the story through their dialogue as well as physical movement - - and the breathtaking finale is experiential theater at its best."
PicksInSix - Highly Recommended
"...You will have a few "Titanic" moments along the way, but I will not spoil the ending or divulge more about the exceptional work and truly artful storytelling of a legendary Chicago story-an imaginative production that will warm your heart even as it chills you to the bone."
TotalTheater - Highly Recommended
"...In my review of last year's live performance, I reminded readers that the unlikelihood of nowadays being caught in a fire while watching a play is directly attributable to the six hundred women and children who perished in flames and to the survivors who crawled through the coal chute into the alley or jumped from the fire escapes to the pavement. The distance provided by watching on a screen from the security of your sofas may diminish the visceral thrill of solitary lanterns casting shadows onto charred walls, rendering the extensive exposition and epilogues protracted, but when the outside theaters open up again, you will arrive thereat with a new awareness of the reason behind that curtain raised in view of spectators before the start of a play, the absence of a Row "I" in seating plans, or, for that matter, why the adage regarding first amendment rights prohibits shouting "fire" in a crowded theater, rather than a church or a stadium."
Picture This Post - Highly Recommended
"...Full of beauty and wonder, Burning Bluebeard is a must-see. This writer has certainly not stopped thinking about the performance since, and feels confident that she has a new Chicago holiday tradition."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Sometimes, when a show resonates, trying to describe it or how it does what it does feels like breaking its bones: the experience, so elegantly manifested, becomes subsumed by the words and then crammed into a trunk for digestible recommendation. It’s easier sometimes, but in this instance words fail me."