Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is heading to Broadway for his first musical. The 20-year-old actor has been announced as the lead for How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Radcliffe is already used to the pressures of nightly Broadway and West End appearances, having wowed critics in Equus last year. He will play the plum part of J. Pierrepont Finch, a window cleaner who rises to the top of a huge company while, of course, wooing and winning a girl along the way. Robert Morse created the role on Broadway and in the 1967 screen adaptation. The original production, running for a healthy 1,417 performances, won the top Tony for best musical in 1962 as well as six more, including awards for lead Morse and supporting player Charles Nelson Reilly. And the 1995 saw Matthew Broderick win the lead actor Tony. Radcliffe is currently filming the final instalments of the Harry Potter movies, Deathly Hallows, which will be released in two parts.

This is FANTASTIC news!! I suspect that this is but the beginning of a long and storied carrer on the stage. I was lucky enough to see Radcliffe in Equus and was stunned by his performance. I have no doubt that he will be just as superb in this new role in How to Succeed. I have been nothing but impressed with every acting performance I’ve seen from the lad and I have been wondering what his future career in acting holds for him. I suspect he will make a great name for himself on the musical theater stage. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he gave up films altogether and stuck with plays and musicals. Time will tell what other projects DanRad will take on but I, for one, am very excited about the prospect of seeing Daniel Radcliffe on the Broadway stage again.

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“Harry Potter” co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Tony and Olivier Award winner Richard Griffiths end[ed] their run in the limited engagement of Equus — Peter Shaffer’s gripping play about the bewildering crime of a teen-age boy — Feb. 8 at 3 PM at the Broadhurst Theatre. [T]he acclaimed revival will have played 21 previews and 156 regular performances. Previews began Sept. 5, 2008, with an official opening Sept. 25. Radcliffe and Griffiths, who played to sold-out crowds in the London revival of the Shaffer play, reprised their work for Broadway audiences. Radcliffe stars as Alan Strang with Griffiths as Dr. Martin Dysart. Ever-busy stage and screen actress Kate Mulgrew plays Hesther Saloman, the role created on Broadway by veteran actress Marian Seldes in 1974. In Equus, “psychiatrist Martin Dysart investigates the blinding of six horses, a savage act committed by an unassuming 17-year-old stable boy, Alan Strang, whose family life is rife with bigotry and religious fervor. As Dysart exposes the truths behind the boy’s demons, he finds himself face-to-face with his own.” Playwright Shaffer based the play on a true story told to him by a friend … Thea Sharrock, who directed the London run, directed on Broadway as well. The creative team also features set and costume designer John Napier, lighting designer David Hersey and sound designer Gregory Clarke. Radcliffe made his West End leading-role debut in Shaffer’s 1973 drama at London’s Gielgud Theatre on Feb. 27, 2007, following previews that began Feb. 16. Radcliffe drew positive reviews from the London critics and lots of attention from gossip columnists because of the much-written-about nude scene. Equus bowed on Broadway in October 1974 at the Plymouth Theatre. The production — directed by John Dexter — won the 1975 Tony for Best Play and ran 1,209 performances. The current production marks the show’s first Broadway revival.

Alas … no more nekkid Daniel Radcliffe on Broadway any longer. I’m not sure how many of you were able to see the production during its run but I was very lucky to be able to see it back in September when it was still in previews. I have a sneaking suspicion that the play will do very well with Tony Award nominations later on this year. Radcliffe, Griffiths and Mulgrew are all superb theater actors and I will happily support the nomination of any of them for Tony Awards. I guess we’ll see if those noms will come to pass. And so, as we bid farewell to Equus on Broadway, let’s think back and remember those naughty NSFW nekkid pics of Daniel Radcliffe on stage during one of his performances. If a bold performance in the nude isn’t worth a Tony, then I don’t know what is ;)

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

If you think you can handle all the NSFWness, you can see these uncensored pics behind the cut … AND there’s video! After the jump, check it out …

Yes, folks, he really lets it all hang out there … for anyone with a paying ticket (and a cameraphone, apparently) to see. Click HERE to watch a short video of Dan’s nekkid performance on stage. As I said when I reviewed the show in September, the nekkid scene is handled very tastefully and really works in the context of the show. Out of context, all by themselves, the nekkid pics of his twig and berries do look kinda funny. Dan’s a champ, tho, for his artistic efforts and I’m sure he will be well-rewarded when Tony Award season comes next year. Thoughts on Dan’s naughties?

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Daniel Radcliffe sends sexy letters to his ‘Equus’ co-star. The ‘Harry Potter’ actor is currently starring alongside Lorenzo Pisoni in the Broadway production of the play – in which Daniel bares all for his role as a horse-obsessed stable boy – and has revealed he gave the 31-year-old actor a series of raunchy notes on the show’s opening night. Daniel said: “We’re getting on very well indeed. I’ve written some really, really deeply sexual things on some of the cards I’ve given him for opening night. But just to wind him up, you know.” The 19-year-old star added he is in awe of Lorenzo, terming him “cool” and “gorgeous” before claiming he would even consider marrying him if he was gay. He said: “He’s great. He’s a truly remarkable man. If I was gay or a female I’d just want to marry him. He’s gorgeous, and he’s really cool bloke as well.”

Well then, isn’t that lovely. I must say, I am quite impressed that Daniel would have no qualms about saying these sorts of things about his very handsome co-star. Surely many people will take this revelation as proof that Dan is gay or even questioning but I honestly believe the opposite. It takes a person very secure with who they are to say things like this in public without fearing any reprisal. Sure, these comments may come back to haunt him but I’m pretty sure he’s OK with whatever anyone has to say about him. It’s impressive. That being said, I’m dying to know what sorts of “raunchy” things he wrote to Lorenzo … just curious ;)

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Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has received rave reviews for his performance in Equus once again as the play opened on Broadway. The 19-year-old returned to his role as disturbed stable boy Alan Strang in New York in front of a star-studded audience which included Glenn Close and Haley Joel Osment. “The young wizard has chosen wisely,” said Ben Brantley in the New York Times, adding that Radcliffe “steps into a mothball-preserved, off-the-rack part and wears it like a tailor’s delight – that is, a natural fit that allows room to stretch”. “His acting, beautifully understated and withdrawn, has just the right manner for this horribly mixed-up adolescent,” said the New York Post. Radcliffe’s performance – which requires him to strip down – was also well-received during the London production of Peter Shaffer’s play. He stars opposite actor Richard Griffiths, who returns as the character’s psychiatrist, in the production at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre. The play centres on a teenage boy who blinds six horses and how a psychiatrist explores why.

As you may recall, I was lucky enough to see this show a couple of weeks ago and I just loved it … so I shant go into raves again in this post. Here are a few pics of Dan pressing the flesh with his hordes of admirers who waited for him to make his exit from the theater after his performance:

And here are a few pics from the red carpet arrivals for the official Equus Opening Night Afterparty:

I’m not sure how I feel about Daniel’s blue suit but it was his night and I think it’s cool for him to wear whatever he likes … the boy is fully nekkid on stage, for Pete’s sake. I’m not too impressed that Haley Joel Osment came out for the event but it is very nice to see Project Runway Season 1 alum Austin Scarlett out and about. Equus is scheduled to run on Broadway until February, I urge those of you who are able to make it out to the Broadhurst to see this show. It’s a very good show, well acted and, you know, there’s the nekkidness. What more could you want from a Broadway play?

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

I suppose I had some vague notion of the sexual undertones of the play beforehand but I was not prepared for what was presented. I really want to keep my comments as vague as possible so as not to ruin the experience for anyone else choosing to see the show. The story is intense and the acting was superb. Richard Griffiths is truly a wonder on stage. I saw him in History Boys back in 2006 and he was just as riveting last night as he was in History Boys. Kate Mulgrew (who many of you may know as Captain Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager) was a delight! In all honesty, I felt that she overacted a wee bit last night (and shades of Capt. Janeway showed thru as well) but I love her entirely and was thrilled to have her mere feet in front of me on stage. Daniel Radcliffe was a total revelation (pardon the pun). I’ve seen his non-Harry Potter acting style in the film December Boys and was very impressed with him then … in this show, he is just stunning. When it got down to the part where he and his young female co-star had to strip down BARE NEKKID on stage … the audience was enraptured. You could hear a pin drop, it was very intense. I will say that Daniel is very, very brave to take on this role night after night in front of sold out houses of people … and he never broke character once. And he doesn’t just stand there … he is all over the place, standing, laying, squatting — totally bare in front of the entire audience. He was totally believable as Alan Strang, horse whisper (well, okay … not quite a whisperer so much as a mutilator). Again, I was not prepared for the sexual nature of the show … but it was handled very well.

The staging, tho simple, was orchestrated expertly. There is basically nothing on stage and yet, the bare stage props were able to transform the stage into an office, a living room, a beach and a horse stable — just brilliant. As for the simple costuming, also brilliant! You really have to see the show to understand — and I urge those of you able to do so to see this show. I’d love to see it again. I’m utterly convinced that Equus will get many Tony nominations … the show is really top notch.

David and I were pleasantly surprised to learn that our 3rd row center seats actually turned out to be front row seats … totally unobstructed view of everything. And, cuz I’m sure many of you want to know, concerning Daniel’s nekkidness. I will say that, in his defense, it was really very cold in the theater … make of that what you will.

At the show, I got to meet Pink readers Heather and her sister Alysse (who share a pic of Daniel that Alysse took after the show last night) as well as Shannon and her friend Izzy (I got to take a pic with Shannon):

It was my pleasure meeting you all. I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did.

After our night at the theater, we met up with David’s friends Issac, Shane, Trey, Marissa and her man Ryan at the New York Musical Theater Festival Opening Night Party in the theater district. I just love David’s friends … we had a blast …

… and then we came home and ate an entire NYC pizza :) ‘Twas a good night, indeed! Tonight we’re having dinner with David’s cousin Caren which should also be fun! There is also trip planning to take care of as well … bizzy bizzy bizzy.

Some might even say it was a magical evening. Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe appeared in his first preview performance of the Broadway drama Equus … earning raves from fans. “I thought that he was terrific,” Mandy Menaker, a college student who attended the performance at New York’s Broadhurst Theater, told PEOPLE. “He had a lot to offer. So I thought it was great.” Danielle Manente from New Jersey agreed that Radcliffe was wonderful. “He was really good. He captured the character [and] he was so into it. He never broke character. I believed everything he said.” In the revival of the 1973 Peter Shaffer play, which was also staged last year in London, Radcliffe stars as Alan Strang, a distressed and hostile teen who commits the horrifying act of blinding six horses, while a psychiatrist (played by Radcliffe’s Harry Potter costar Richard Griffiths) tries to get to the heart of why he did it. Radcliffe first entered stage embracing an actor playing a horse … His very emotional performance, which reveals Strang’s anger and fear, was met with enthusiastic applause from the audience. Not to mention wowing the crowd with the nude scene, which comes toward the end of Equus. “Oh my God! That was nice,” said Manente of Radcliffe’s character fully undressed himself in an attempt at lovemaking with a young woman. “I’m not gonna lie. He looked pretty good.” “By that point he was so in the character,” Menaker added, “that you don’t think of it as Harry Potter naked. He’s naked as a character emotionally, so you’re not at all thinking that he’s physically naked. You’re so involved in the scene by that point that you don’t even notice.”

Yeah, I don’t care how “in character” he gets in this performance, I think I’d notice his nekkidness. Throughout the entire West End run of Equus last year no nude frontal photos of Daniel Radcliffe managed to make their way out of the theater (altho, a few pics of the very nekkid Alfie Allen hit the InterWeb earlier this year when he took over the role after Dan’s run ended). After the jump, check out a few grainy pics of Daniel Radcliffe’s NSFW nude scene in the first preview performance of Equus last night …

Altho these pics are very grainy, I think you can make out that this is Dan … all of Dan:

Yowza! It is really difficult to see what exactly we’re working with here … but I think you get the gist. David and I will be seeing a preview performance of the show on Monday September 15 … I’ll be better able to report on this … er, the show, when I finally get to see it for myself. So … thoughts?

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There’s only one thing the boy wizard wants now that he’s all grown up—to play a drag queen. It’s a brilliant June day in Manhattan’s Bryant Park. Small white clouds dot the wide arc of midtown sky. Children’s voices mingle with music from a gilded carousel. And, sitting on a green folding chair, as moms pass with strollers and idlers sip iced tea, the world’s most famous English schoolboy is talking dirty. “Stepping out the motherfucking carr, they in awe,” says Daniel Radcliffe. “I’m looking like a starrr, bitch.” He looks up. “How was that?” Bright-eyed and bushy-browed, the British actor is gamely reciting some phrases we’ve come up with to test his American accent, in preparation for becoming a full-time New Yorker when he moves here this fall to star in the Peter Shaffer play Equus. We started with some conversational basics—softened t’s (”Can I get a bottle of water?”), smashed syllables (”Look at the size of that squirrel”)—and are now in the extra-credit section: Lil Wayne lyrics. Radcliffe tries again. “Stepping out the motherfucking carrr, they in awe, I’m looking like a starr, bitch. When you see me make a wish.” Britain’s richest teenager, who will turn 19 in a few weeks, sure does look like a star: knockabout-natty with a choppy brown coif, olive designer tee, navy blazer, and dark skinny jeans—these last are made by Absolut Joy, he says, looking down to check the button on his fly. “And I would like to say that that’s what lurks beneath” … “Whenever I can I want to leave Harry there on the screen,” Radcliffe says. “I don’t want to bring him into my normal life” … Maybe because he’s surrounded by people at least twice his age, Radcliffe tends to date older women. He’s currently single, although he explains that this is primarily due to time constraints. “Most of my friends have been girls, and I see how they are with their boyfriends and I think, I couldn’t do that,” he says. “I just don’t have the time.”

He’s a saucy little scamp, ain’t he? After the jump, check out a short video from Details magazine of Dan in David Bowie make-up talking about his last Details photoshoot (among other things) and a couple pics of the lad making his way into Equus rehearsals on Broadway …

David and I see the show on Broadway in just over 2 weeks. I am intrigued and excited. Woot!

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

The second pic is more … risqué … it features Daniel laying atop a big horse completely nekkid while veteran stage actor and his Equus co-star Richard Griffiths stands by looking … uncomfortable (or constipated, I can’t really tell). After the jump, check out the semi-NSFW image …

Ta-Da!

UHHH … it’s a weird pic, no question. If you’re interested in seeing a larger version of this image you can see it HERE. I’m not sure how I feel about this pic. I think his promo pics for the West End run of Equus were more interesting. That being said, David and I do have third row center seats for Equus on Broadway next month. I’m interested to see what all the fuss is about. I guess I’ll also be finding out if Harry Potter’s magic wand is worth all the hype ;)

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Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe, who starred in the London revival of Equus, are set to reprise their work in the upcoming Broadway production of Peter Shaffer’s award-winning play. Director Thea Sharrock again directs the production, which will arrive at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre Sept. 5. The show will open Sept. 25 for a strictly limited 22-week engagement through Feb. 8, 2009. In Equus, “psychiatrist Martin Dysart (Tony Award winner Richard Griffiths) investigates the blinding of six horses, a savage act committed by a mild-mannered stable boy, Alan Strange (Daniel Radcliffe), whose home life is filled with bigotry and religious fervor,” show notes explain. “As Dysart reveals the mysteries behind the boy’s demons, he realizes he is confronting his own.” Joining Griffiths and Radcliffe in the Broadway production will be stage and screen actress Kate Mulgrew.

Hopefully there will be a few more promo pics released for this newest production of the show, back when Equus opened in London we were treated to a whole slew of hawt pix of Danny boy in various states of undress. I am very much looking forward to seeing this show, finally, for myself. Not only am I … intrigued … by the notion of so much nekkidness in a major Broadway play like this but I am such a huge fan of Kate Mulgrew. She played Capt. Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager and I have loved her ever since. I have a couple of amazing seats for the September 15th show so I am very, very excited. Woot!

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