Stars:
***
Rating: R for sexual
situations and nudity
Run
Time: 1
hour, 45 minutes
The English
Restoration shines every bit the star in this gender-bender of a love story.
Billy
Crudup sizzles as Edward Kynaston, the most beautiful “woman” on the English
stage circa 1661. Seventeenth century theater
was a male-dominated arena; a men-only club when it came to public performance.
At the
urging of his cheeky mistress Nell Gwyn (Zoë Tapper), the flamboyant and
fun-loving King Charles II (Rupert Everett) switches gears in a fit of royal pique
and commands that the stage be henceforth an equal opportunity craft.
Raised to
be theatrically female, Kynaston’s career hits the skids. Something akin to the
advent of talkies for silent film stars. His trademark role of Othello’s Desdemona is
unceremoniously snatched away from him and bestowed onto a real flesh-and-blood
actress.
Kynaston’s
dutiful dresser Maria (Claire Danes) comes to the rescue. Giddy from the
smashing response to her own stage debut, her deep feelings for Kynaston
nonetheless embolden her to persuade him to reinvent himself for the male roles
that are up for grabs.
Flawed but
fascinating, Stage Beauty is a
handsome kaleidoscope of adult-themed pleasures. Pacing has trouble finding its footing and is
dodgy throughout, and the occasional scene falls curiously flat. But the hedonistic backstabbing, garish gowns
and grease-paint, and dandy court of Charles II, a decadent affair of
voluptuous melodramatics and effeminate airs, manage to compensate for the
tempo problems.
Final act
is an Oscar-worthy Shakespearean salvo, with rival lovers Maria and Kynaston enacting
Othello’s infamous death scene with palpable heat. Crudup and Danes reportedly
fell in love while filming this edgy bard valentine and it shows. Their chemistry is hot; tangibly sexy and
coursing with prurient energy.
Crudup is
extraordinary as the insecure thesp trapped in a doozy of an identity crisis,
and his co-stars match him play for play.