Stage Beauty Details

London's theatreland of the 1660s provides the backdrop for this offbeat romantic comedy drama from Iris director Richard Eyre. The name of Ned Kynaston may have long since faded into obscurity, but, at a time when female roles were played by men, he was the theatre's most celebrated “leading lady” — charming diarist Samuel Pepys, among others. Here, Kynaston (played by Billy Crudup) is at the height of his fame, oblivious to the romantic feelings of his dresser, Maria (Claire Danes), who reprises Kynaston's performance as Desdemona in an illicit production. When King Charles II (Rupert Everett), eager for novelty, proclaims that all female roles should be played only by women, Maria becomes a star while Ned quickly finds himself out of work. This promises much as a period tale, exploring territory touched upon in Shakespeare in Love, but it never quite overcomes the fact that Crudup's Kynaston simply isn't credible as the top “female” actor of the age.

Weak and miscast drama of gender confusion that rewrites theatrical history to suggest the triumphant arrival of a modern and naturalistic style of acting to replace what had gone before.