Stage Beauty

Inspired by the life of 17th-century player Edward Kynaston, acclaimed theater director Richard Eyre's darker, grittier variation on the theme of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1998) is an elegant and emotionally charged look at the travails of actors and aspiring actresses in Restoration England, when women were forbidden to tread the boards. London, 1660: Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) is the most sought-after actor in the theater, not because he can deliver Hamlet's complex dialogue with sparkling grace, but because his delicate features permit his transformation into a persuasive leading lady. Kynaston's favorite role is Othello's Desdemona, which he performs to scene-...