With Christmas-cancelling Oliver Cromwell in his grave and bon vivant Charles II saucing it up with Nell Gwyn, London was ripe for change in the 1660s.
But for actor Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) whose livelihood is playing the leading ladies in theatre, no change could be more serious than the dandy monarch's decision to allow actual women on the stage.
Ned suddenly finds himself out of favour and out of work as his former wardrobe mistress Maria (Claire Danes) becomes the novel toast of the London stage but the curtain's not down on him yet.
Director Richard Eyre gives full-blooded life to Jeffrey Hatcher's observant, literate and frequently funny script, delivering an earthy period romp with a universal subtext about the sting of redundancy and the difficulty of being the last in the old line and the first in the new.
He's served particularly well by Crudup and Danes, with wonderful support from Richard Griffiths, Derek Hutchinson, Rupert Everett and, particularly, a spicy turn from Zoe Tapper as a feisty Nell.
But for actor Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) whose livelihood is playing the leading ladies in theatre, no change could be more serious than the dandy monarch's decision to allow actual women on the stage.
Ned suddenly finds himself out of favour and out of work as his former wardrobe mistress Maria (Claire Danes) becomes the novel toast of the London stage but the curtain's not down on him yet.
Director Richard Eyre gives full-blooded life to Jeffrey Hatcher's observant, literate and frequently funny script, delivering an earthy period romp with a universal subtext about the sting of redundancy and the difficulty of being the last in the old line and the first in the new.
He's served particularly well by Crudup and Danes, with wonderful support from Richard Griffiths, Derek Hutchinson, Rupert Everett and, particularly, a spicy turn from Zoe Tapper as a feisty Nell.