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Opening night on Broadway is getting to be old hat for actor Daniel Radcliffe, however this time, he added the challenge of song and dance to his live performance.

The Harry Potter actor took to the stage for the revival of  How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Sunday, March 27th.

Playing J. Pierrepont Finch from the 1961 musical comedy, Radcliffe is charming critics and the audience with his turn as the always-in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time kinda guy.

The 21 year-old has taken on theater before. He was very well received both in London and in New York City for his role in the psychological drama Equus.

Photos of Daniel’s opening night bow are under. Read more »

After his successful turn on Broadway in the play Equus, Daniel Radcliffe may make a return to live theater. This time the actor is the first cast member tapped for a reading of the 1961 musical How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. The December reading, if it’s well received, may turn into a full-fledged Great White Way show. Now that would be interesting – a musical with Radcliffe as the star.

‘Twilight’ star Robert Pattinson has a busy year ahead of him. With the vampire sequel ‘New Moon’ scheduled to start filming and his latest movie ‘Little Ashes’  both happening in March 2009 and an (as yet) uncomfirmed role in ‘Ohio,’  the in demand actor may be headed to London’s West End theater district. David Pugh, the producer who brought Daniel Radcliffe to the live stage in the revival of Equus, has confirmed to Variety that he will be developing something with Pattinson for the year 2010. It is the perfect time for him to expand his acting career to theater if he wants.

Growing up in the media spotlight, actor Daniel Radcliffe has had quite a charmed life. Among all that Hollywood hype, he has maintained a true british sense of self and is quite well-read, politically minded and very charming. He is passionate about politics – both American and British and has this to say about our new president, Barack Obama:

“I am so proud and happy for this country. He is everything the rest of the world liked about America and now likes again. He is both Martin Luther King and JFK. He is a pioneer. He is a symbol of progress which is what we dig about this country. What you love about England is all the old buildings and such. The traditions. I love that, too. But this is what we want from you.

And may I? I’d like to take this opportunity to issue a public invitation to the Obamas that if their daughters would like a private tour of the Harry Potter set, I would be honored to be their personal tour guide.”

Radcliffe also reveals a love of poet John Keats, that Robert Pattinson would win in contest of who girls prefer, his opinion of the Prince Harry scandal, and a very funny Broadway showtune he performs that pokes fun of his character in Equus. Check out the interview at The Daily Beast.

The always charming Daniel Radcliffe gave a new interview to NY1 about how much he’s enjoyed being a part of a Broadway production. The actor, who is returning to London soon (Equus ends on February 8th,) to begin filming the 7th Harry Potter, says he would like to return again and maybe do a musical. He is taking singing lessons. He’s had a great time in NYC with other actors and wants to do it again.

“Nothing against the London community at all and maybe this is just my experience of it, but when I was in London, we didn’t go out once with members of any of the other companies,” he said. “We just didn’t. Here we’ve been going out with ‘The Seagull.’ [another Broadway show] We met up with ‘Black Watch.’ We’ve seen all the guys from ‘Gypsy.’ It’s a really, really close community here and you hear a lot about it and it’s astonishing.”

It would be great to see him return to Broadway doing something a bit more lighthearted and in maybe a musical. That would be fun. Click the link here to listen to the whole interview.

Moving on from the successful Harry Potter franchise will be difficult to do for all the young actors involved. Often when kids or teens end up in super successful roles like this, they get pegged as that character forever. For Daniel Radcliffe, the danger is he will forever be Harry Potter and only Harry Potter in our minds so it was really brave for him to take the part of Alan Strang in Equus and begin branching out now. He has done a fantastic job to great reviews both in London and now from NYC’s Broadway. He is rewarded for his efforts with the Broadway.com Award for 2008 Star of the Year. He had quite a strong group of contenders to go up against, some very skilled theater actors were nominated alongside him. He was very gracious when told of the accolades and had this to say:

“That’s really, really amazing!” Radcliffe told Broadway.com when he learned of the news. “The Broadway community has been incredibly welcoming and this sort of sums it up, really. In a year when there have been some really big performances on Broadway, to have been nominated and win is really, really cool!”

Congratulations to Radcliffe. For those who can’t get to NYC to see him, Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince is due out in July of 2009