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Stage Beauty

Stage Beauty
StageBeautyBilly.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Richard Eyre
Produced by Robert De Niro
Hardy Justice
Jane Rosenthal
Screenplay by Jeffrey Hatcher
Based on "Compleat Female Stage Beauty"
by Jeffrey Hatcher
Starring Billy Crudup
Claire Danes
Rupert Everett
Zoe Tapper
Tom Wilkinson
Music by George Fenton
Cinematography Andrew Dunn
Edited by Tariq Anwar
Production
company
Lionsgate
Qwerty Films
TriBeCa Productions
Ni European Film Produktions-GmbH & Co. KG
BBC Films
Distributed by Momentum Pictures (UK)
Lionsgate
Release date
  • 8 May 2004 (2004-05-08) (Tribeca)
  • 3 September 2004 (2004-09-03) (UK)
  • 8 October 2004 (2004-10-08) (US: limited)
Running time
109 minutes
Country United Kingdom
United States
Germany
Language English
Box office $2,153,070

Stage Beauty is a 2004 British-American-German romantic period drama directed by Richard Eyre. The screenplay by Jeffrey Hatcher is based on his play Compleat Female Stage Beauty, which was inspired by references to 17th-century actor Edward Kynaston made in the detailed private diary kept by Samuel Pepys.

Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) is one of the leading actors of his day, particularly famous for his portrayal of female characters, predominately Desdemona in Othello. His loyal dresser, Maria (Claire Danes), aspires to perform in the legitimate theatre but is forbidden because of a law enacted by the Puritans prior to the restoration of the House of Stuart. Instead, she appears in productions at a local tavern under the pseudonym Margaret Hughes. Her activity aided by the novelty of a woman acting in public, which attracts the attention of Sir Charles Sedley (Richard Griffiths), who offers his patronage. Eventually she is presented to King Charles II (Rupert Everett).

Nell Gwynn (Zoe Tapper), an aspiring actress and Charles II's mistress, comes upon Kynaston ranting rabidly about women on stage and literally seduces Charles II into banning men from playing female roles. Kynaston, having gone through a long and strenuous training to play female roles finds himself without a guise by which to keep the attention of his lover, George Villiers (Ben Chaplin), the Duke of Buckingham, as the latter never had intentions to lead a homosexual life and Kynaston has lost the acceptance of London society which started to circulate rumors about their association. He is reduced to performing bawdy songs in drag in music halls, while Maria's career thrives, although her ability to emulate that of Kynaston falls short because, as she says, Kynaston never fights as a woman would do.


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