Review of Stage Beauty (2004) by Manny C — 23 Mar 2011

Billy Crudup delivers a knockout performance as the 'most beautiful woman on the London stage' in Stage Beauty. In seventeenth century England, women were forbidden from acting. so men played all of the female roles.

Ned Kynaston is the toast of the stage, bringing down the house every night with his dying Desdemona. Ned's dresser, Margaret Hughes (luminous Claire Danes) is fascinated by him and in love with him, that is until she sees him getting it on with the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Chaplin).

But then King Charles II (a deliciously funny Rupert Everett) decrees that women can appear on the stage, Margaret becomes a star and Ned must learn to play men. Stage Beauty, adapted from a play by Jeffrey Hatcher, is all kinds of bawdy fun, thanks to its stars and director Richard Eyre (Iris).

Crudup leaves the best impression, and is amazingly moving when he does an audition and fights to suppress his feminine side. Things get explosive when Margaret and Ned co-star in Othello. It's a wonderful little film.