Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...The passing of time adds a troubling "life imitating art" aspect to the production, but Black Button Eyes is also staging this show as a benefit for nonprofit Season of Concern, which would make do-gooder Penny quite proud. While this run was originally scheduled for 2020, it's a fitting transition back to the theater after months of isolation. Much of the action plays out on seven onstage screens (feels like home, right?) and the hour-plus run time pads in two ten-minute intermissions seemingly tailored to our atrophied attention spans."
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...Kevin Webb is outstanding in his role as Dr. Horrible, an aspiring villain. He holds the story together with his marvelous singing and his wide ability to engage the audience with his patter and humor. Equally fine voices belong to Tommy Thurston, who plays his archnemesis Captain Hammer, and Stephanie Fongheister, who plays Penny, a charity worker who is both men's love interest. The competition between them for her affections is swift and unyielding. Their songs create the engine for much of the show, thanks to excellent music direction by Micky York. In addition, Joshua Servantez, as Moist, and Caitlin Jackson, North Homewood, Josh Kemper, Peter Ruger, and Maiko Terazawa round out the cast."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Black Button-Eyes’ latest production arrives just in time for Halloween and smartly capitalizes on the popularity of the superhero/villain trope found everywhere these days. It’s a concise little show filled with special effects, satire and comic book humor. Thanks to a topnotch artistic team, the attention to detail is particularly magical, and Ed Rutherford’s brilliant cast even out-blasts the mad doctor’s powerful Death Ray. Overflowing with effervescent enjoyment, this homage to serialized melodramas and superheroes is a perfect way to spend a chilly Autumn evening."
Chicagoland Musical Theatre - Highly Recommended
"...With a show that accepts the villain as the hero, a victory as a loss, and cruelty as humor, Black Button Eyes Productions presents a tantalizing production that is not to be missed. Filled to bursting with charm, one can’t help feeling warmed by the effort, quality, and heart that Dr. Horrible’s cast and crew exhibit. Black Button Eyes proves that comfort can be found in the macabre, and that challenging expectations can be as fun as it is innovative — especially when it comes to theater for a cause."
Chicago On Stage - Recommended
"...Told from the point of view of a long underachieving wannabe villain, the Blog tells the story of his disastrous attraction for a woman he meets in a laundromat and his struggle to join the Evil League of Evil, run by "the thoroughbred of sin," Bad Horse. It's inventive, silly, and funny stuff, told partly through a soundtrack that is so catchy that, at least in my house, it quickly replaced Rent as my kids' go-to sing-along."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The general issue of the script’s Whedonisms not translating well to a theatrical medium (alongside other cinematic moments that Rutherford and his team have found unsuccessful means of theatricalizing) sinks much of the enjoyment of the production, not to mention the bizarre choice to mirror the act breaks of the original series and provide two ten-minute intermissions, creating an almost one-to-one ratio of time spent watching a piece of theater and watching an empty stage, alongside breaking apart any kind of dramatic and narrative tension that could’ve been gleaned from this endeavor."
