I watched the movie “Stage Beauty” over the course of a couple days. It was something I Tivo’d during the free Showtime weekend. It was a great cast – Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Rupert Elliott, and Tom Wilkinson. It’s the tale of Edward Kynaston, considered the greatest actor of the 17th Century for his ability to play women. You see, in the 17th C. it was illegal for women to be on the stage.
In this fictional account, his dresser, a young woman named Mariah Hughes (Dane) does the forbidden and plays Desdemona in a cut-rate production in a local tavern, using all of Kynaston’s props from the “real” production of “Othello”. He finds out about his competition, and as the movie progresses his worst nightmare comes true: King Charles II decrees women can be onstage, effectively ending Kynaston’s brilliant career.
Billy Crudup is amazing as Kynaston – appropriately moody and sexual ambiguous you never really knew what was going on in that noggin of his. Danes was wonderful – she’s such a great actress and her scene as Desdemona at the end of the movie is breathtaking. Rupert Elliott is appropriately snarky and hypocritical (i.e., banning men to dress as women even as he himself stands in a heavily brocaded gown from head to toe).
Great movie.
4 red pillows out of five.
Oh! I remember I wanted to watch this! š