Stage Beauty

Synopsis
Feature film. London in the 1660s, and a declaration from King Charles II (Rupert Everett) legalising female actors puts the girl-boy specialist Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) out of a job. His former dresser and aspiring actress Maria (Claire Danes) now becomes a star while Kynaston is reduced to appearing in dingy drag clubs. Maria asks Kynaston to coach her and they make a triumphant comeback in a production of Othello. A heavy handed, and unsubtle romp described by critic Philip French as ‘Tootsie with a periwig and without the jokes’.
Language
English
Country
Germany; Great Britain; United States
Medium
Film
Technical information
Colour / Sound
Year of release
2004
Duration
110 mins; 9,912 feet

Credits

Director
Richard Eyre
Producer
Hardy Justice; Jane Rosenthal; Robert De Niro
Cinematographer
Andrew Dunn
Screenplay
Jeffery Hatcher
Music
George Fenton
Costume
Tim Hatley
Art Direction
Jan Spoczynski; Keith Slote
Cast
Billy CrudupEdward ‘Ned’ Kynaston (Othello)
Claire DanesMaria (Desdemona)
Rupert EverettKing Charles II

Additional Details

Production type
Fiction Films
Historical period
17th Century
Plays
Othello
Subjects
Drama
Keywords
gender representation; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); All-male casts; Elizabethan stage

Notes

Reviews
Reviewed by Philip French in The Observer (5 September 2004) and in Sight and Sound, vol. 14, no. 10, October 2004, p. 67-8.

Burt, Richard ‘Backstage Pass(ing): Stage Beauty, Othello and the Make-Up of Race’ in Burnett, Mark Thornton & Wray, Ramona (eds) Screening Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. pp53-71.

Production Company

Name

Tribeca

How to cite this record

Shakespeare, "Stage Beauty". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av36803 (Accessed 25 Nov 2024)