Hailed at the time as "a remarkable advance" in musical burlesques, Blue Beard or the Hazard of the Dye was a resounding successes playing to packed houses through its run. Critics noted that F. C. Burnand's dialogue had "considerable literary merit" and "real fun." Burnand's version of the character Blue Beard is a dashing young fellow who keeps his blue tuft of hair by means of dyeing it and was originally written as a trouser role for the Gaiety...