STAGE BEAUTY by Richard Eyre
by Andre Soares
Stage Beauty (2004) 
Director: Richard Eyre. Screenplay:Jeffrey Hatcher; from his own play Compleat Female Stage Beauty. Cast: Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Rupert Everett, Tom Wilkinson, Zoe Tapper, Ben Chaplin, Richard Griffiths, Edward Fox, Hugh Bonneville
SHAKESPEARE IN CONFUSION
Despite touches from A Star Is Born, All About Eve, Farewell, My Concubine and the many versions of Viktor und Viktoria, Stage Beauty’s raison d’être is the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love. Like its predecessor, this comedy about the theater and gender impersonations may even succeed in becoming a critical and box-office hit — in spite of itself. For Stage Beauty, directed by Richard Eyre and adapted for the screen by Jeffrey Hatcher (from his own play), is as much of a calculated crowd-pleaser as the 1998 Elizabethan romantic comedy — but without any hint of the magic found in the earlier film. This important detail, however, may go unnoticed by those eager to be fed fantasy romance, superficial gender-bending humor, juvenile sex situations, and cheap jokes at the expense of the French and the clergy. Shakespeare in American Pie, perhaps?
The actual premise of the film (based on real-life characters) is quite interesting: Ned Kynaston, an actor (Billy Crudup) admired for playing female roles, has a love-hate relationship with Margaret Hughes, an actress (Claire Danes) who usurps both his stage roles and his fame. Add to that a dose of sexual fluidity and a touch of sexual confusion, and we could have an intelligent, transgendered Restoration romantic comedy — surely the first of its kind. But despite some modernistic (and jarring) handheld camera shots and a oh-so-hip score that sounds more techno than baroque, Stage Beauty is not that evolved.
Instead of offering real insights into both gender and sexual roles, Stage Beauty is preoccupied with the creation of old-movie romance between two actors that have as much chemistry as oil and water. When the film dares to touch the concept of gender constraints, it is used as foreplay for potential sexual encounters. In the end, we are left even more confused than poor Kynaston. Is he simply bisexual? Or is he at heart a heterosexual man who happens to be attracted to other men because of all the female roles he has played? Or could it possibly be that he is a woman trapped in a man’s body, only able to act like the woman he really is when onstage? If so, is Kynaston’s attraction to Margaret a form of lesbianism? No wonder Billy Crudup looks so stressed out throughout much of the film.
Yet, apart from Richard Griffith’s appropriately slimy patron of the arts and Edward Fox’s excellent bit as Sir Edward Hyde (Fox, in fact, is so snottily good that he almost makes the cheap shot against the French funny), Crudup is by far the best element in the film. Unlike the intelligent-looking Danes, who is stuck with a role that alternates between outrage and dewy-eyed sadness, Crudup is given a more complex, multifaceted character. Even though he is too old for the part and at times looks and acts like a 21st-century actor, he has excellent moments of lightness as the flirtatious off-stage Desdemona, and a brilliant moment of despair, when he unsuccessfully tries to play a male role for the first time.
Although it is not a total failure, Stage Beauty is weighed down by its own pretensions. If Hatcher and Eyre had something new and unique to say, they should have said it. Else, they might as well have stuck to conventional, gender-bending romances à la Shakespeare in Love. Happy ending and all.
Synopsis:
London in the 1660s. It is a time and place where men and women of good repute apply face powder and wear big, fluffy wigs. Onstage, however, facial powder and wigs are props for men only. Women have been banned from the stage since the days of the puritan Oliver Cromwell, a time when theaters were shut down all over England. The return of exiled king Charles II had led to a loosening up of the perverse puritanical code, though women remained barred from the acting profession.
During that period, pre-pubescent boys portray females onstage. Some, like Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup), are so good at it that they continue donning dresses and tresses long after reaching puberty. Kynaston is particularly successful as Shakespeare’s Desdemona, whose fey, dying gestures bring down the house each evening. Meanwhile, the actor’s dresser, Maria (Claire Danes), yearns to play that dramatic part, finally performing it on the sly in a rundown tavern.
Maria, aka Margaret Hughes, becomes a celebrity because of her daring — and suddenly, Kynaston, until then "the prettiest woman in the whole house," has some serious competition. Eventually, the actor’s arrogance and disdain for male roles and for women in general alienate his theater troupe; his lover, the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Chaplin); and even the king (Rupert Everett), whose mistress, Nell Gwynn (Zoe Tapper), is a fellatio expert who uses her pleasure-giving skills to convince her royal lover to rescind the law banning women from the stage.
The untalented Margaret becomes an immediate sensation, but once the novelty wears off, she is left with dwindling audiences and a revolting, prissy patron, Sir Charles Sedley (Richard Griffiths). Having always loved the sexually confused Kynaston, Margaret turns to him for help. Out of a real job since the king passed a law forbidding men from playing women’s roles, the downtrodden Kynaston agrees to teach her how to act, and while doing it, he discovers the art of natural acting and learns that men’s roles can be challenging to male actors as well.
Notes:
Edward "Ned" Kynaston (c.1640-1706) may indeed have been the last of the English boy actors who played female roles. His last part, however, was not in Shakespeare’s Othello (a great personal success as Desdemona), but in Beaumont and Fletcher’s Maid’s Tragedy. He was 21 at the time. Kynaston later played male roles onstage. Off stage, there were rumors of an affair with the Duke of Buckingham. Later, however, Kynaston married a woman named Mary (or Maria) and fathered six children. Whether he had male lovers on the side, it’s anyone’s guess.
In reality, King James II met Nell Gwynn 8 years after he rescinded the ban on female actresses.
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU
Comments
Leave a Reply
Note: All comments are moderated. Different views and opinions are welcome, but abusive/bigoted/flaming comments will NOT be approved. Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has NO contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog or any information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
