Stage Beauty

Director: Richard Eyre Richard Eyre

Overview

"Richard Eyre's gender-bending film about life in the theater, Stage Beauty, debuts on DVD with a widescreen transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.78:1. English soundtracks are rendered in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital Stereo. English and Spanish subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials include a commentary track recorded by the director, a making-of featurette, and trailers."

Product Details

Release Date:	03/08/2005
UPC:	0012236173106
Original Release:	2004
Rating:	R
Source:	LIONSGATE - 600000-AEC LGE
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:49:00
Sales rank:	47,940

Special Features

Deleted scenes; Commentary; Interviews; Behind the scenes; Trailers; 16:9 Widescreen; 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital; English and Spanish subtitles

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Billy Crudup	Ned Kynaston
Claire Danes	Maria
Rupert Everett	King Charles II
Tom Wilkinson	Thomas Betterton
Ben Chaplin	George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham
Hugh Bonneville	Samuel Pepys
Richard Griffiths	Sir Charles Sedley
Edward Fox	Hyde
Zoe Tapper	Nell Gwyn
Tom Hollander	Sir Peter Lely
Clare Higgins	Mistress Revels
Jack Kempton	Call Boy
Derek Hutchinson	Stage Manager
Mark Letheren	Male Emilia/Dickie
Alice Eve	Miss Frayne
Fenella Woolgar	Lady Meresvale
David Westhead	Harry
Nick Barber	Nick
Stephen Marcus	Thomas Cockerell
Robin Dunn	Butler
Isabella Calthorpe	Lady Jane Bellamy
Andy Merchant	1st Thug
John Street	2nd Thug
John Tannen	3rd Thug
Hermione Gulliford	Mrs. Barry
Madeleine Worrall	Female Emilia
George Fenton	Composer

Technical Credits

Jeffrey Hatcher

Richard Eyre	Director,Executive Producer
Jeffrey Hatcher	Screenwriter
Robert De Niro	Producer
Hardy Justice	Producer
Jane Rosenthal	Producer
Michael Kuhn	Executive Producer
Amir Malin	Executive Producer
Rachel Cohen	Executive Producer
James Stern	Executive Producer
Malcolm Huse	Key Grip
Celestia Fox	Casting
Gordon Seed	Stunts

Editorial Reviews

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 MTV. Richard Eyre's film version, Stage Beauty, does a mostly good job at drawing out this discussion, but the issues get a bit trivialized by the film's broadly comedic tone. Eyre seems more eager to whip his actors into a frenzy, which often plays for unintentional laughs, than to allow them quiet moments of despair or frustration. Consequently, the performances are capable, but they don't stand out. It's useful to know that the film is based loosely on a real man who eventually married and had children. Otherwise, the conversion of Billy Crudup's Kynaston from clearly homosexual to possibly straight seems a bit confabulated, not to mention coming dangerously close to implying that homosexuality can be "cured." It doesn't help that the relationship between Maria Hughes (Claire Danes) and Kynaston feels utterly false, due both to a lack of chemistry between Danes and Crudup and a lack of plausibility in their characters' attitudes and motivations. They do come together well in the third act, through a couple of rich rehearsal scenes containing smart observations on the actor's craft and on Shakespeare's Othello.