10 Little-Known Movies That You Must Watch In 2015

5. Stage Beauty

Every high school English class discusses the well-covered historical fact that all women's parts used to be played by men, because it was considered inappropriate to have women on the stage. Presumably at some point the powers that be decided that this was all a bit silly, and theater shifted into the dynamic of women as women and men as men familiar to audiences today. Stage Beauty covers this transitional period, when women were just beginning to act and their male counterparts were being phased out, as well as offering up a compelling character study along the way. It revolves around Ned Kynaston, a male actor trained since childhood to play the female parts, and how he must adapt once that avenue is no longer available to him. Stage Beauty has an amazingly talented cast with Billy Crudup in the starring role, Claire Danes as a costume dressed turned actress, and Rupert Everett as the gregarious Charles II. You might like Stage Beauty if: you enjoyed Shakespeare in Love, movies about the theater, or frothy period dramas in general.