Costume Critique: Black Butler

The musical i chose was Black Butler the musical 2: The Most Beautiful Death in the World.

(this actually may be the ad for the first one???)

Black Butler is originally a comic book in Japan and was animated into a TV show and then transofrmed  into 2 musicals (with a third on the way?!?!). I love the show and the intricate artwork and style of the artist. Costume designer is unknown due to lack of information online, but he/she caught the essence of Black Butler
2) The time era for the whole Black Butler franchise is set in the Victorian Era in England. But, the artwork and costumes for the play are a bit more extreme

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Black Butler book artwork

That is because Black Butler is a very much gothic and dark themed show. so plain, regular clothes would disappoint the fans of the books and show (including myself). Some of the other outfits might be questionable related to the era of the plot, some do have a more cartoony feel to them (maid in bacground with those huge buttons), but the musical stayed true to the books and show lest they had an angry mob after them. It's similar to those of us who grew up watching Marry Poppins and in the musical they took her infamous red/blue coat away and made it green or took her umbrella away. we would feel something is off or just downright upset about it!

Of course they dummed it down for a bit for the play, but at the very end when the cast was taking a bow, Ciel (the little boy) did wear a very similar outfit to the cover art above. A shame he didn't wear it earlier and more often. I'm very much a fan of frills, lace, and victorian fashion.
4) Throughout the musical, all the extras only wore black and white (even the same ones through the entire show). I never realized it till looking at the question, but this is very symbolic of how Earl Ciel Phantomhive views other people

Other people are merely his chess pieces (in his view) (and ths the chess board floor) to gaining his goals. They use the chess reference in the book and show as well, but the background/extra characters are themed as so. I thought it was a very nice touch to the musical to visually represent this game of chess and everyone as his pawns
5) My favorite costume was Ciel's undercover outfit (the pink one)

As I said, frills and bows and big dress I adore and it matches PERFECTLY the one in the tv show. the shape, the bunched up skirt, the big flower hat, if i had a ball to go to i would make that dress and wear it. Not to mention the flow of the dress! the way it twirls and moves! *fangirling in a corner* I think it is also more in line with the Victorian style while still maintaining the slight dark tone to it because of the small bits of black here and there.
What's even more funny is that all the people in that shot are male. so you have two men in dresses and not to mention  other male characters also dress up to disguise themselves.
 if you wish to see the dress scene here it is (no subtitles)