Hollywood excited by UK film adaptation

There’s excitement in Hollywood about the new British film Stage Beauty, starring Billy Crudup, Clare Danes and Rupert Everett.

The comedy, directed by Richard Eyre from Jeffrey Hatchers’s play, Compleat Female Stage Beauty, is set in 1660s London when men routinely took on women’s roles in plays because it wasn’t considered appropriate for females to go on stage.

A decree by Kind Charles II that women should be played by women means the end of stage star Ned Kynaston’s career – until his dresser comes up with a brilliant idea.

Ben Chaplin, Tom Wilkinson and Zoe Tapper also star in the film which was produced by Robert De Niro.