Stage Beauty (2004)
Country: GB/GER/US
Technical: col/2.35:1 110m
Director: Richard Eyre
Cast: Claire Danes, Billy Crudup, Tom Wilkinson, Rupert Everett, Ben Chaplin, Hugh Bonneville, Richard Griffiths, Edward Fox
Synopsis:
In 1660s London when Charles II revokes the law banning women from appearing on stage, the livelihood of a young actor specialising in female roles comes under threat, not least when it his own dresser who first breaks the ban and triggers the change of mood in favour of actresses having equal sway.
Review:
To be facilely compared to Shakespeare in Love for its gender swapping love story, this is a less witty but no less engaging look at theatrical life in the past. It features fine opportunities for character players, but also offers plenty of food for thought, the dilemma of the young actor deprived of his instrument, so to speak, being far more compelling than the superficially similar Farinelli il Castrato. The issue of the character's homosexuality is slightly underexplored, then all but brushed aside, and the final fulfilment of the promise of 'something surprising and novel' on stage via an arrestingly modern performance of the death scene from Othello carries more poetic justice than verisimilitude, but one is won over by the freshness of the leads and the energy of the music and mise en scène.
Country: GB/GER/US
Technical: col/2.35:1 110m
Director: Richard Eyre
Cast: Claire Danes, Billy Crudup, Tom Wilkinson, Rupert Everett, Ben Chaplin, Hugh Bonneville, Richard Griffiths, Edward Fox
Synopsis:
In 1660s London when Charles II revokes the law banning women from appearing on stage, the livelihood of a young actor specialising in female roles comes under threat, not least when it his own dresser who first breaks the ban and triggers the change of mood in favour of actresses having equal sway.
Review:
To be facilely compared to Shakespeare in Love for its gender swapping love story, this is a less witty but no less engaging look at theatrical life in the past. It features fine opportunities for character players, but also offers plenty of food for thought, the dilemma of the young actor deprived of his instrument, so to speak, being far more compelling than the superficially similar Farinelli il Castrato. The issue of the character's homosexuality is slightly underexplored, then all but brushed aside, and the final fulfilment of the promise of 'something surprising and novel' on stage via an arrestingly modern performance of the death scene from Othello carries more poetic justice than verisimilitude, but one is won over by the freshness of the leads and the energy of the music and mise en scène.
Country: GB/GER/US
Technical: col/2.35:1 110m
Director: Richard Eyre
Cast: Claire Danes, Billy Crudup, Tom Wilkinson, Rupert Everett, Ben Chaplin, Hugh Bonneville, Richard Griffiths, Edward Fox
Synopsis:
In 1660s London when Charles II revokes the law banning women from appearing on stage, the livelihood of a young actor specialising in female roles comes under threat, not least when it his own dresser who first breaks the ban and triggers the change of mood in favour of actresses having equal sway.
Review:
To be facilely compared to Shakespeare in Love for its gender swapping love story, this is a less witty but no less engaging look at theatrical life in the past. It features fine opportunities for character players, but also offers plenty of food for thought, the dilemma of the young actor deprived of his instrument, so to speak, being far more compelling than the superficially similar Farinelli il Castrato. The issue of the character's homosexuality is slightly underexplored, then all but brushed aside, and the final fulfilment of the promise of 'something surprising and novel' on stage via an arrestingly modern performance of the death scene from Othello carries more poetic justice than verisimilitude, but one is won over by the freshness of the leads and the energy of the music and mise en scène.