Sadly Over-hyped

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

An aspiring actress in Restoration Britain switches dominance with her cross-dressing mentor, but will the switch stick? Good concept with a sound historical basis and the opportunity for clever interplay. The choice of the murder scene in Othello as a plot device makes for comedy in the different styles of performance and delivers a final dramatic rush. And the story moves with pace from playhouse to court, leaving a vague impression of historical London.Biggest problem was with the lead actress, who played a linear part earnestly. Her mentor's story had some twist, which almost came through in his audition before the king, but I was hoping both actors' parts would be mischievous and deceptive, self promoting and self harming. Instead it's all about honest aspiration and just rewards, and misses out the essential weirdness of play acting in a tyranny. But it does come together in the end - a great climax onstage, which had me going with the audience and wondering did they/didn't they? Most awkward performance is in the part of Nell Gwynn - again, on the nose, but I guess that's down to the writing. The king and the company manager are played brilliantly; rest of the cast as good as you'd hope for in a Brit period drama.Music was lush - no historical references, as far as I could tell. Full fathom five.Overall: Entertaining, could have done with more weird.

If you are looking for another movie like "Shakespeare in Love", forget it: it's not here.True, there was a Charles II, Nell Gwynn, and Ned Kynaston; however, the viewer is left with characters who have little, if any, similarity to the historical persons. The Nell Gwynn as depicted in this film would never have been a favorite of the London playhouses nor Charles II. And the Ned Kynaston as he appears in Stage Beauty would have been performing in Bedlam rather than on Vere Street. Ned was not a basket case; rather, an accomplished actor.And Othello was not the subject that enthralled audiences of the Restoration era. Where is Wycherly's "Country Wife", or Etherege's "Love in a Tub"? The Restoration restored fun and sin, not tragedy, the stuff of Puritans and Pilgrims. The film fails to capture the spirit of the era: the joy of life on earth rather than in the after life.This film not only fails in historical accuracy. It also fails in creating believable characters. No, Virginia, gay men cannot be made heterosexual. That is a fantasy of gay men and the women who love them. Bisexual is a term used by those who are in a state of denial. This is the biggest failure of the film: the viewer cannot suspend disbelief.And at times I detected a bit of preachiness about woman's rights, feminism, etc, that I half expected to see Gloria Steinem appear on stage as Iago. Yeah, we know women can act: haven't we all been married and divorced? If you, too, are fed up hearing about gay and woman rights all the time, send your wife to the movie with her girl or gay friend, and stay home. Watching the New York Giants lose is less painful than watching this drivel.Other than perhaps Scotty Bowers, I am really at a loss as to who loved this film. The whole world may be a stage except for this film.Pass on this one unless you, too, are in a state of denial.

First of all, the film is one of the few that give detailed lifestyle of this early period in English history. You would think "a man plays a woman..that's a comedy" but it's not...it's a well made drama..These guys were celebrities back then. What got me the most was Billy Crudup's performance..this man can certainly act..I wish I could have some contact with him..I'd tell him "You are one of the best actors I've ever seen"...If I see him acting on a stage it would be great for sure.. Anyway..this is one of my best movies and certainly worth a watch. and yes it's an overlooked movie...like so many brilliant others.

"It is not a question of acting a man. I can act a man. There's no artistry in that. There are things that I can be as a woman that I cannot be as a man." Billy Crudup, as Ned Kynaston.Set against the English Reformation period of the 1660, as led by King Charles the II, Stage Beauty is a saucy romp of a film beautifully directed by Richard Eyre and scripted by Jeffrey Hatcher, from his original play, Compleat Female Stage Beauty. This marvel boasts an accomplished cast, led by Billy Crudup and Claire Danes, through this gender-bender of a costume comedy-drama.Director Richard Eyre (Notes On A Scandel) does a fine job counter-pointing couples Claire Danes/Billy Crudup and Rupert Everett/Zoe Tapper. Tapper's Nell Gwynn is priceless as the king's sexy paramour, shrilly romping about the palace with King Charles, her cross-dressing monarch.Billy Crudup plays Ned Kynaston, a classically trained actor of women's roles during the 17th century, when female roles were forbidden to be played by – well, females. A popular star, he lounges seductively with the Duke of Buckingham, George Villiars, his upper-crust lover, between rehearsals and stage performances.Claire Danes plays Mrs. Margaret Hughes, a widow who works as Ned's dresser. During his performances, Maria (as she calls herself), watches in the wings, secretly longing to play the roles denied her – especially the coveted role of Desedmona in Shakespeare's popular tragedy, Othello. She takes a chance, breaking the kings' law, by performing – as a woman – on stage, in a vaudeville review (And hence, not subjected to the law of the land, that is stringently enforced on the legitimate stage).Both drag star and star wannabe both end up as special guests at the King's dinner table. A lively exchange takes place concerning the merits of a woman actually acting the part of – well, a woman.King Charles II (Rupert Everett): "Why shouldn't we have women on stage? After all, the French have been doing it for years." Sir Edward Hyde (Edward Fox): "Whenever we're about to do something truly horrible, we always say that the French have been doing it for years." The tables are turned on Kynaston, who now watches aghast as the King overturns the law, opening the floodgates for women's roles to be played – well, only by women. He becomes an object of scorn and ridicule, as a couple of upper-class groupies enact their own brand of revenge against him for past insults.Meanwhile, Mrs. Hughes is suffering her own humiliation of being a one-hit wonder, only to discover that being a woman, playing a woman, means little without acting ability as – well, a woman.Ned and Maria wind up instructing each other on the ways of love and acting, all to a symphony of applause for acting – well, like a man and a woman. Through it all, they tease and snipe at each other to push the boundaries of their manufactured images, not because they care what others think, but because they care about their own sense of themselves.