Stage Beauty

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

Those who thought "Shakespeare In Love" was as good as it gets in intelligent costume romantic comedy will find that director Richard Eyre and writer Jeffrey Hatcher have taken the form to a higher level.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Crudup is whole. He creates the man who has pride in what he does, who is suddenly stripped of the work and the pride; and who makes his way, somewhat painfully, to another sort of pride. His story is a small but acute poignancy in the history of the theater, and Crudup realizes it completely.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A rich, shining valentine to the British theater and the eternal joys of Shakespeare,

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It's not as clever, or as consistently funny, or as well-cast as "Shakespeare in Love," but Richard Eyre's Stage Beauty is the most fun I've had with the Bard since that 1998 Oscar winner.

Empire Alan Morrison

A film that, despite being about theatre itself, is remarkably cinematic and entirely unafraid to revel in the English language.

Variety David Rooney

This skillfully acted, handsomely crafted frock piece toys cleverly with gender confusion and sexual identity.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

The movie blows a fresh wind of disrespect, high drama and lush romanticism through that stolidly middlebrow subgenre, the period drama.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Sly and witty.

USA Today Mike Clark

Beauty is about two-thirds the serious-edged romp it would like to be, which still leaves a lot of room for tony fun.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Claire Danes is as fresh as running water in this role, exhibiting the clarity and directness that has become her strength; her characters tend to know who they are, and why.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Expertly directed by Richard Eyre (Iris) from Jeffrey Hatcher's play, the film is bawdy fun.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

In the popularity sweepstakes, Stage Beauty may earn top honors, outdoing the overrated "Shakespeare in Love" as a dramatic comedy about life and love in an era more naive - but hardly more innocent - than our own.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Sometimes teeters on the verge of going completely over the top, but it's mostly saved by its own self-awareness.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Has a weird, compelling energy, fueled by a deliciously dynamic cast, a cheerfully bawdy and odd story line and a refreshing, impossible romance.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

An entertainment as billowy as a Shakespearean nurse's sail-shaped hat.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Crudup, whose features have the appropriate delicacy, plays Ned with complete conviction; it’s difficult to imagine anyone else succeeding as well.

Newsweek David Ansen

It's a marvelous premise, and Crudup's serpentine performance has a venomous grace. But Jeffrey Hatcher's screenplay too often sacrifices psychological insight for bogus theatricality.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The movie's sexual politics couldn't be more regressive--Crudup learns to be a man in the sack as well as on the boards--but it's still a competent middlebrow costume drama.

Washington Post Teresa Wiltz

Ultimately this is a celebration of the theater, a big, wet kiss to the craft of acting and the artists who inhabited London's early stages.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

The design is gorgeous, the dialogue delicious, and even the supporting characters prove resonant.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

For those to whom life is but a stage, this will be sweet, sweet candy; to those of us destined to be their audience, it's a satisfying, if flawed, look behind the curtain.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

At best, the film makes a more convincing case for the adventure of artificiality: Take Billy Crudup, add a little rouge to his cheeks and suddenly: Voilà, the guy can act.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

In the end, viewers are left with a nagging feeling that this was a long way to go for the incongruous pleasure of watching 20th-century method acting on a 17th-century stage.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

For every thing that Stage Beauty does right, it fumbles at least one other element, resulting in a movie-going experience that is of the glass half-full/half-empty variety.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Yet Crudup does good, mercurial work despite a silly surfer-dude haircut.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

As drama, Stage Beauty is both timorous and ungainly, words that might also describe Ms. Danes's performance.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

The film is an intriguing and hugely theatrical experience whose effectiveness is greatly enhanced by gorgeous period costumes and set design.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A celebration of the theater that tends to drag the moment it's out of drag.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

There's an enjoyably literate style here and some humorous moments.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The wigs, hats and gowns look realistic, gorgeous and utterly right. In a vapid confection like Stage Beauty, perhaps that's what really counts.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

The film rarely matches Crudup's performance, appearing confused itself about whether it's farce or drama.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Over-orchestrated and underdeveloped interpretation of Jeffrey Hatcher's play.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

As historical speculation, it's clever enough. As a film, it glows with flop-sweat.

Premiere Staff (Not Credited)

The result is more bawdy diversion than historical fable.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Both interesting and insufferable.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Most frustrating, Stage Beauty fumbles XX/XY politics at every turn.

The New Yorker David Denby

Second-rate bawdiness--that is, bawdiness without the wit of Boccaccio or Shakespeare or even Tom Stoppard--is more infantile than funny, and I’m not sure that the American playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, who concocted this piece for the stage and then adapted it into a movie, is even second-rate.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

In the end, Stage Beauty is in over its mediocre head.