STAGE BEAUTY

Year: 2004
USA: Lions Gate Films
UK: Momentum Theatrical
Cast: Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Rupert Everett, Tom Wilkinson, Ben Chaplin, Hugh Bonneville, Richard Griffiths, Edward Fox, Zoe Tapper, Derek Hutchinson, Mark Letheren, Jack Kempton, Alice Eve, Fenella Woolgar, David Westhead, Nick Barber, Stephen Marcus, Robin Dunn, Isabella Calthorpe, Andy Merchant, John Stree, John Tannen, Tom Hollander, Hermione Gulliford, Clare Higgins, Madeleine Worrall, Nancy Chandler
Director: Richard Eyre
Countries: UK / Germany / USA
UK: 100 mins
USA Rated: R for sexual content and language
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and moderate sex references
USA Release Date: 22 October 2004
USA Release Date: 15 October 2004 (Limited Release - Los Angeles)
USA Release Date: 8 October 2004 (Limited Release - New York)
UK Release Date: 3 September 2004

Synopsis

Richard Eyre's STAGE BEAUTY stars Billy Crudup and Claire Danes plus a host of British stars including Rupert Everett, Tom Wilkinson, Ben Chaplin, Hugh Bonneville, Richard Griffiths and Edward Fox feature in Jeffrey Hatcher's sharp, sexy screenplay. Tom Hollander, Clare Higgins, Fenella Woolgar and newcomer Zoë Tapper round out the cast.

It's the 1660s, and Edward 'Ned' Kynaston (Crudup) is England's most celebrated leading lady. Women are forbidden to appear on stage and Ned profits, using his beauty and skill to make the great female roles his own. But Charles II (Everett) is tired of seeing the same old performers in the same old tragedies. Since no one will take him up on his suggestion to improve 'Othello' with a couple of good jokes, he decides to liven the royal palate by allowing real women to tread the boards. In a slightly less progressive spirit, he rules that men may no longer play women's parts. This is good news for the monarch's mistress, the saucy, stage-struck Nell Gwyn (Tapper). It is also good news for Maria (Danes), Kynaston's lovelorn young dresser who has been secretly performing at the Cockpit Theatre in lavish costumes borrowed from her employer. It is very bad news for Ned who plummets from his exalted position as one of London's most desirable females to become a virtual nobody, virtually overnight. Cast out of the spotlight, Ned seems headed for the end of the pier until Maria, now a rising star, takes it upon herself to make a man of him again.