Stage Beauty movie with Billy Crudup: Mixing elements from All About Eve, Shakespeare in Love, and A Star Is Born, Richard Eyre and Jeffrey Hatcher’s big-screen version of the latter’s play fails to delve into the real-world complexities of human sexuality and gender identity.- Stage Beauty (2004) movie review: Directed by Richard Eyre, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from his own play, and based on historical figures, this uncertain Restoration comedy-drama tiptoes around the issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. Billy Crudup and Claire Danes star.
- Stage Beauty synopsis: Renowned for playing female characters, theater performer Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) has his professional and personal life upended after King Charles II (Rupert Everett) lifts the ban on women on stage, which results in the actor’s dresser (Claire Danes) landing some of his old roles.
Stage Beauty (2004) movie review: Director Richard Eyre and adapter Jeffrey Hatcher’s skittish handling of gender and sexual constraints cripples Restoration dramedy
Directed by theater, opera, television, and movie veteran Richard Eyre (The Ploughman’s Lunch, Iris) and adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from his own 1999 play Compleat Female Stage Beauty, the Anglo-German-American co-production Stage Beauty has a number of elements in common with show-business-centered releases of years past – e.g., All About Eve, Farewell My Concubine, The Dresser, the several versions of A Star Is Born and Victor Victoria.
Yet this Restoration-set romantic comedy-drama about cross-gender impersonations on the 17th-century British stage feels, more than anything, like a graver-minded Shakespeare in Love.
And like its predecessor, Stage Beauty may even succeed in becoming a critical and box office hit – in spite of itself. For Eyre and Hatcher’s effort is as much of a calculated crowd pleaser as John Madden’s 1998 Best Picture Oscar winner; that is, minus the sporadic captivating moments and audience-friendly denouement.
These important details, however, may go unnoticed by those eager to be fed big-screen fantasy romance – no matter how absurd – accompanied by a large dose of superficial gender-related humor and a sprinkle of juvenile sexual situations.
Stage Beauty plot: The loveliest leading lady of the 17th-century British stage
The basic premise of Stage Beauty was inspired by the life of British theater actor Edward (“Ned”) Kynaston (c. 1640–1706), one of the young male performers cast in female roles at a time when women were banned from the stage, courtesy of “Protector” George Cromwell and his authoritarian, military-Puritan government.
After watching Kynaston’s portrayal of the (unnamed Russian) Duke’s sister in John Fletcher’s tragicomedy The Loyal Subject, noted diarist Samuel Pepys (1633–1703), later in life a Member of Parliament and Chief Secretary to the Admiralty, described the actor as “a boy” who “made the loveliest lady that ever I saw in my life,” one whose only drawback was a “not very good” voice.
In Stage Beauty, Ned Kynaston, as played by 35-year-old American actor Billy Crudup, is a not-all-that-boyish, not-all-that-lovely performer who, nevertheless, is widely admired for bringing to life female stage characters, most notably the unlucky Desdemona in William Shakespeare’s Othello.
Offstage, Ned enjoys/suffers through a love-hate relationship with Maria (Claire Danes), his dresser and an aspiring thespian who – as the reputed “first professional actress” of the English stage, Margaret Hughes (c. 1645–1719) – eventually usurps both his roles and his social standing.[1]
Notable Restoration personages
Among the other noteworthy 17th-century personages seen in Stage Beauty are King Charles II (Rupert Everett, who has a little too much fun with his royal character); the king’s lover, notorious entertainer Nell Gwynn (Zoë Tapper), unhistorically depicted as an actress-wannabe; and the Duke of Buckingham, George Villiers II (Ben Chaplin), shown as Kynaston’s reticent lover (in real life, their purported liaison was rumored/lampooned).
Best Actor Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom, 2001) incarnates noted actor and stage manager Thomas Betterton, while Samuel Pepys is played by Hugh Bonneville. Tom Hollander pops up as Peter Lely, portrait painter to the court.
Add to the fictionalized historical proceedings some adult-oriented sexual fluidity and gender identity confusion, and we could have had in Stage Beauty a complex, daring, and still very much relevant transgender Restoration romantic comedy-drama – surely the first of its kind.
But despite some modernistic (and jarring) handheld camera shots and George Fenton’s inappropriate techno-baroque score, Stage Beauty is in fact a woefully conventional effort. And a demure one at that.
Stage Beauty with Claire Danes and Billy Crudup: Initially the dresser for Crudup’s female “impersonator” Ned Kynaston, Danes’ Maria eventually becomes theater celebrity Margaret Hughes – reputedly, the “first professional actress” of the British stage.Sexual and gender identity confusion
Instead of offering insights into gender and sexual orientation constructs, Richard Eyre and Jeffrey Hatcher have chosen to focus their film adaptation on an old-school romance between two actors who, as it happens (and notwithstanding their off-screen relationship), display little on-screen chemistry.
Having not seen or read Hatcher’s play, this reviewer can’t tell how much has been changed to please the palate of your average moviegoer. But what’s evident on screen is that whenever the filmmakers bother to deal with the issue of gender-based social constraints, they use it either as an excuse for unrefined humor or as ploy for potentially tantalizing sexual encounters. As a consequence of their meandering trepidation, this viewer was left even more confused than the befuddled Ned Kynaston.
Who is he? A gay man trying to pass for straight? A bisexual man living in an era when the label – and its multifarious definitions – didn’t exist? Or is he, perhaps, a heterosexual man who happens to be attracted to other men because of all the female roles he has played?
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 while on stage? If so, is Kynaston’s attraction to Margaret a form of lesbianism? And would the young actress have perceived her own feelings that way?
No wonder Billy Crudup looks like a man on the verge through much of the film.
Billy Crudup showcase
Even so, apart from Richard Griffiths’ slimy patron of the arts Charles Sedley and an excellent bit by veteran Edward Fox (The Day of the Jackal, A Doll’s House) as Charles II’s Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde – Fox is so snottily good that he almost makes a cheap shot at the French funny – Crudup is the most effective Stage Beauty component.
Admittedly, there’s one major problem with his casting: Notions of female beauty and dramatic liberties aside – the anti-actress ban was lifted in 1660, when Kynaston would have been about 20 or so – the Almost Famous and Big Fish actor looks much too old for the part of a youthful stage seductress. Compounding matters, at times he looks and acts just like an early 21st-century performer.
Yet unlike Claire Danes, who finds herself stuck in a role that alternates between petulant outrage and dewy-eyed sadness, Crudup does get the chance to sink his teeth into a difficult, multifaceted character.
He comes off particularly well in a couple of disparate sequences: Acting all flirtatious as the off-stage Desdemona (possibly the real-life Margaret Hughes’ first role) and, later on, falling into despair while unsuccessfully trying to play a male part for the first time. (In real life, the adult Edward Kynaston would enjoy a lengthy career in male roles.)
Stage Beauty movie with Billy Crudup as Ned Kynaston and Ben Chaplin as George Villiers II: “And Kenastons arse knows its own Buggerer,” read an anti-Villiers text (1678) allegedly written by poet John Dryden.Filmmakers much too concerned with audiences’ palates
In all, though hardly a complete failure, Stage Beauty is weighed down by the filmmakers’ unwillingness to follow through with their thematic purpose.
If Richard Eyre and Jeffrey Hatcher had something new and/or unique to say about human sexuality, gender identity, and related social constraints, they should have said it without worrying too much about pleasing the moviegoing masses.
Else, they might as well have gone all the way to achieve their commercial goals, sticking to the formula of traditional, faux-gender-bending romances à la Shakespeare in Love. Hollywood happy ending and all.
Stage Beauty (2004) cast & crew
Director: Richard Eyre.
Screenplay: Jeffrey Hatcher.
From his 1999 play Compleat Female Stage Beauty.Cast:
Billy Crudup … Ned Kynaston
Claire Danes … Maria Hughes
Tom Wilkinson … Thomas Betterton
Ben Chaplin … George Villiers II – Duke of Buckingham
Rupert Everett … King Charles II
Zoë Tapper … Nell Gwynn
Edward Fox … Sir Edward Hyde
Tom Hollander … Sir Peter Lely
Richard Griffiths … Sir Charles Sedley
Hugh Bonneville … Samuel Pepys
Alice Eve … Miss Frayne
Fenella Woolgar … Lady Meresvale
Madeleine Worrall … Female Emilia
David Westhead … Harry
Nick Barber … Nick
Stephen Marcus … Thomas Cockerell
Hermione Gulliford … Mrs. Barry
Clare Higgins … Mistress Revels
Derek Hutchinson … Stage Manager
Mark Letheren … Male Emilia / Dickie
Jack Kempton … Call BoyCinematography: Andrew Dunn.
Film Editing: Tariq Anwar.
Music: George Fenton.
Producers: Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Hardy Justice.
Production Design: Jim Clay.
Costume Design: Tim Hatley.
Production Company: Qwerty Films.
Distributor: Lionsgate (Lions Gate Films).
Running Time: 105 min.
Country: United Kingdom | United States | Germany.
“Stage Beauty (2004): Billy Crudup + Claire Danes” notes
All About Eve meets A Star Is Born
[1] In terms of thespian aspirations (but not character traits), Claire Danes’ Maria is reminiscent of Anne Baxter’s treacherous Eve Harrington in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Broadway-set All About Eve.
But when it comes to Stage Beauty’s dramatic device of contrasting Maria’s theatrical ascent with Ned Kynaston’s fading fame, Maria has more in common with the characters played by Constance Bennett in What Price Hollywood?, and Janet Gaynor and Judy Garland in the 1937 and 1954 versions of A Star Is Born.
For as Maria is transformed into stage celebrity Margaret Hughes, Kynaston – like Lowell Sherman, Fredric March, and James Mason in decades past – faces the dire prospect of spending the rest of his life in has-beendom.
Awards season mentions
A major box office bomb ($782,000 gross in the U.S. and Canada; $1.5 million [likely incomplete] elsewhere), Stage Beauty was mostly bypassed during awards season.
Yet Richard Eyre’s Restoration comedy-drama did manage to be listed as one of the ten titles in the National Board of Review’s Special Recognition for Excellence in Filmmaking category and it was the Phoenix Film Critics Society’s Overlooked Film of the Year.
‘Prettiest Woman’
After attending a 1661 performance of Ben Jonson’s Epicene, or The Silent Woman, starring Edward Kynaston, Samuel Pepys wrote in a diary entry: “Clearly the prettiest woman in the whole house.”
Star producer
Two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro (The Godfather: Part II, 1974; Raging Bull, 1980) is one of Stage Beauty’s credited producers.
John Dryden quote via The Image of Manhood in Early Modern Literature: Viewing the Male, edited by Andrew P. Williams.
Stage Beauty movie credits via the American Film Institute (AFI) Catalog website.
Ben Chaplin, Claire Danes, and Billy Crudup Stage Beauty movie images: Lionsgate.
“Stage Beauty (2004): Billy Crudup + Claire Danes” last updated in September 2023.