Stage Beauty

The true story of two performers whose careers were changed forever by a shift in gender roles on the British stage comes to the screen in this adaptation of the play +Compleat Female Stage Beauty by Jeffrey Hatcher. In London, in the latter half of the 17th century, Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) is a ...more

Jeffrey Hatcher's play +Compleat Female Stage Beauty tackles a period of British history that's ripe with gender and social interest, yet had not been revisited from a modern perspective: the lifting of the ban on female actors, and the consequences to the men who specialized in playing female roles. For audiences, the issue has 20th century parallels with silent film stars, whose funny voices sometimes kept them from transitioning to talkies, and unattractive musicians who couldn't make it on ...more