Portraying his beloved Shakespeare at last, Kenneth Branagh, both director and star, imagines the bard’s life in his final years. “He was after all a man,” proclaimed Branagh, introducing his new film, All is True, to a Broadway elite at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation: The Robin Willians Center for an intimate premiere. The film’s idea: after the famous Globe theater burned down, Shakespeare returned to his birth home, Stratford-on-Avon, to his wife Anne Hathaway (Judi Dench), and children. There, he does what any man would do, damage control to redeem himself for his long absence, talk about his legacy with the Earl of Southampton (Ian McKellen), and garden. This is known: both his daughters were engaged in scandals, and his son died mysteriously. Women were unschooled, and any impropriety would lead to a witch-hunt. There is enough drama, and family dysfunction, in other words, to enliven the creative chops of screenwriter Ben Elton for this gorgeously made period piece!

Then at 54 Below, at supper, theater talk ensued. Rosemary Harris, so elegant in My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center, chatted with Branagh about the Sunday matinee, with an audience of autistic youth enjoying the Lerner & Leowe musical. Nearby, Julian Fellowes shared a booth with Elliot Goldenthal and Julie Taymor who is working on her Gloria Steinem biopic.

Also attending: Montego Glover is just back from the Chicago run of Hamilton, and William Ivey Long who competes with himself for the TONY Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical, for his work on Beetlejuice and Tootsie this Broadway season. Celine Rattray, a producer on the movie, Skin, hobnobbed with All is True producer Laura Berwick. Dr. Amanda Foreman announced she is co-curating an exhibition at Buckingham Palace this summer, to coincide with the publication of her book, Inside Queen Victoria’s Buckingham Palace. If indeed, “all the world’s a stage,” this was the ultimate party scene.