Stage Beauty

Starring: Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Rupert Everett, Tom Wilkinson, Ben Chaplin

Directed by: Richard Eyre

RS: 3of 4 Stars

2004 Lions Gate Films Comedy

Being a guy, Billy Crudup can't qualify as Best Actress, but he does a hell of a job playing the "most beautiful woman on the London stage." In the seventeenth century, women were banned from acting. Men played all the women's roles, and nobody did it better than Ned Kynaston (Crudup). His dying Desdemona in Shakespeare's Othello brought down the house. Just ask Margaret Hughes (Claire Danes), Ned's dresser, who yearns for the guy until she catches him going at it with the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Chaplin). But when King Charles II (Rupert Everett is a hoot and a half) rules that women can now strut onstage, Margaret is suddenly a star and Ned must struggle to play men. Expertly directed by Richard Eyre (Iris) from Jeffrey Hatcher's play, the film is bawdy fun. But Crudup pierces the heart in an audition that has Ned trying to squelch his feminine side. When Ned and Margaret co-star in Othello - Crudup and Danes pair up beautifully -- the gender role-playing puts spine in this period piece that is vital to the here and now.