Daniel Radcliffe to Kick Up His Heels on Broadway

This time he gets to keep his clothes on – in Mad Men-era Brooks Brothers-style suits. But the big challenge: singing and dancing.

Daniel Radcliffe, who last year pranced on the Great White Way in his birthday suit for the stark drama Equus, will take the lead in a new revival of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, to open in spring 2011, its producers have announced.

By then, the Harry Potter star will be the ripe old age of 21.

The 50-year-old show, which originally starred Robert Morse (who now plays the senior ad agency owner on Mad Men) and was revived in 1995 with Matthew Broderick, concerns J. Pierrepont Finch, a fiercely ambitious young man who rises from the mailroom to the upper echelons of the World-Wide Wicket Company. He also finds love on his way up – and down – the corporate ladder.

Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella) did the classic score, which includes the standard "I Believe in You" – and which Finch sings to himself, in the executive men's room's mirror.

Daniel Radcliff Reach Out to Suicidal Gay Teens

'Harry Potter' star Daniel Radcliffe detests homophobia; the actor says, "I have always hated anybody who is not tolerant of [the gay community]. Now I am in the very fortunate position where I can actually help." The Associated Press reports that Radcliffe has filmed a PSA for The Trevor Project, the leading organization focusing on suicide prevention efforts among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youth.

Both of Radcliffe's parents are actors, and he explains, "I grew up knowing a lot of gay men and it was never something that I even thought twice about – that some men were gay and some weren't. And then I went to school and (for) the first time ... I came across homophobia. ... I had never encountered it before. It shocked me."

The Trevor Project was founded by three filmmakers in 1998 after their short film 'Trevor' won an Academy Award. The movie concerned a gay teen who attempts suicide. Radcliffe, 20, says he first became aware of The Trevor Project while he was appearing on Broadway in the 2008 revival of 'Equus.'

"I have described myself as being 'gently eccentric' and slightly different as a person just because I've had a very different set of influences growing up than anybody else in my peer group did," Radcliffe said. "I've always felt very lucky to have the life that I've had. I never had to cope with anything serious about my religion or sexual orientation or anything like that.

"I think it's important for somebody from a big, commercial movie series like 'Harry Potter' and particularly because I am not gay or bisexual or transgendered. ... The fact that I am straight makes not a difference, but it shows that straight people are incredibly interested and care a lot about this as well."

Will Daniel Radcliffe be Returning to Broadway?

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe got raves when he appeared on Broadway last year in Equus. There is now hope that Radcliffe might return to the New York stage in a revival of the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Radcliffe took part in a reading of the show this week and, according to Broadway World, was sensational.

Writes the site’s Realto Chatter columnist: He interpreted the role in a charming, adorable and fresh way. He sang great. I think everyone was there to see if he could do it. And boy, he really did it. He was great. He came off as a full-fledged musical star. Those of us who saw him in Equus know he has the stage chops as a dramatic actor but now I can say that he could easily take Broadway by storm as a musical comedy star, too. After that final Harry Potter movie comes out, this guy can do whatever he wants in any medium. I loved him. And it seems to me that he is the youngest actor to play the role of Finch. And his youth made the show feel fresh and new. It had a new kind of innocence to contrast the cynicism of the world he is in.

Daniel Radcliffe Will Strip for Next 'Harry Potter'

Daniel Radcliffe will strip down in the new Harry Potter movie -- twice! The actor, who has previously bared it all for his part in the play Equus, will drop his clothes again for the latest flick in the series, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. Details aren't quite solidified, but it sounds like a go.

Director David Yates revealed: “Daniel has appeared nude in the past. There are a couple of scenes in the new film in which he will undress but we’re still thinking about how we present it.”

The scene occurs when Harry’s best friend and Hermione’s love interest Ron Weasley, played by Rupert Grint, is battling a monster which tries to defend itself by flashing a series of images where Harry and Hermione are kissing and embracing."

Daniel will then expose himself in a later scene following a brush with death. The director added: "There is another scene in Kings Cross station, where Harry almost dies and sees Dumbledore. In that scene he will also be naked."

Daniel, 20, has previously admitted he was surprised by how comfortable he was appearing nude on stage. He said: "It never really was an issue. I don't know why, it probably should have been. I am terribly self-conscious. Although I remember I did look at my dad once and say, 'Do you think I could wear pants?' "

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is being split into two installments, with the first due for release next year.

Hollywood Stars Smash Broadway Records

If you want to break the box office, you get an A-list star – and Broadway's learning that that's as true in theater as it is on the silver screen.

With movie stars on the marquees of its plays, Broadway is seeing one of its best fall seasons in recent years, selling $21.1 million from October 12 to 18, according to The New York Times.

A Steady Rain has grossed over $1 million, thanks to stars Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman. Meanwhile, Shakespeare is hot as never before, with Jude Law raking in $904,914 last week, bringing total box office receipts for Broadway to $21.1 million for the week of October 12 to 18.

Last year, the hot ticket was Daniel Radcliffe's (mostly naked) turn in Equus, which grossed a mere $782,307 in the same weeklong period. Broadway's grosses were $19.7 million, less it from plays, and not including the grosses for the musical Young Frankenstein.

"These three current plays are doing absolutely sensational business, especially considering that the economy hasn't fully recovered,” Philip J. Smith, chairman of Broadway's Shubert Organization, told the Times. "They've been a huge factor in this unusually healthy fall for recession-era Broadway. If only all shows were doing so well."

But sometimes a play's success is buoyed more by great reviews and buzz – even if the names on the playbill aren't quite as attention-grabbing. God of Carnage has also broken the $1 million, and features respected actors Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden.

Daniel Radclife: I Loathe Homophobia

Daniel Radcliffe takes the August 2009 cover of UK’s premiere gay glossy, Attitude Magazine, even though he "isn’t" gay and is dating actress Laura O’Toole.

Daniel, who turned 20 yesterday, talks about how he grew up surrounded by his parents’ gay pals and hates anyone with a homophobic attitude.

“I just loathe homophobia,” Daniel shared. “It’s just disgusting and animal and stupid and it’s just thick people who can’t get their heads around it and are just scared. I grew up around gay people entirely. I was the only child in my class who had any experience of homosexuality or anything like that.”

Daniel’s latest movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price is in theaters now!

Daniel Radcliffe Thinks Gay Rumors Are 'Awesome'

Daniel Radcliffe loves the fact people think he's not straight - and regularly gets homosexual pals to check gay websites to search for gossip about him.

The Harry Potter star admits that strangers often think he's gay because of his camp personality - and isn't fazed by the comments at all.

And the star insists he is so thrilled to be mistaken as homosexual, he urges his friends to dig up gay gossip about him on community blogs.

He tells Moviefone, "It's wonderful. I grew up around gay people my entire life, basically, that's possibly why I'm quite camp, and some people think I'm gay when I meet them, which I think is awesome.

"It's always good to keep them guessing. I don't go on any blogs or chats or anything, but my friends are demons for them, and apparently someone said 'Daniel Radcliffe is gay. He's got a gay face!'"

Daniel Radcliffe's Women Worries

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe struggles to find himself a girlfriend - because he bores women with his "chat up lines."

The 19-year-old actor admits girls often find him attractive at first, but are immediately put off when he opens his mouth - because he is no good at holding a conversation with pretty females.

He says, "I'm a terrible person to be a sex symbol. I'm no good at chatting people up. The lust thing generally stops when they meet me, because I'm not a particularly sexy person to talk to. I'm not good at chit-chat. I can't do pick-up lines."

And Radcliffe is convinced his one redeeming feature is his taste in music, but even that isn't enough to win over the ladies.

He adds, "I have cool taste in music, I think ex-girlfriends have told me that. But they are ex-girlfriends!"

Maybe Daniel shouls take a "hint" and try chatting with men. They may be better listeners to his type of conversations.

Meet "Equus" actor Lorenzo Pisoni, the guy Harry Potter thinks is Hot!

So this is the guy Harry Potter thinks is hot.

Meet "Equus" actor Lorenzo Pisoni, of whom Daniel Radcliffe said, "If I was gay or a female, I'd just want to marry him. He's gorgeous, and he's a really cool bloke as well."

"Honestly, I think he was trying to embarrass me," says Pisoni, who plays both horse and rider in Peter Shaffer's 1973 drama. The play stars Radcliffe, the crown prince of the Potter film franchise, as a tormented teen.

"It's crazy how it spread," Pisoni adds. "I've heard from a lot of friends I've not heard from in ages, mocking me and congratulating me on my possible nuptials."

It can't be easy trotting across a stage with a 19-year-old, 130-pound superstar on your shoulders, but somebody has to do it. And it's just as well that somebody is Pisoni, a former Cirque du Soleil ringmaster and acrobat who stands 6-foot-7 in his hooves.

"My father's a clown - literally, a clown," the 31-year-old said the other day, over a heaping bowl of pasta ("We horses are the Michael Phelpses of Broadway").

As the son of the founders of San Francisco's Pickle Family Circus, Pisoni started doing "bits" at age 2, when he wandered out onstage with a beat-up top hat, toy bowling pins and a suitcase.

He was in good company: Bill Irwin was a Pickle person too, becoming young Lorenzo's unofficial godfather. Years later, Irwin helped Pisoni land a manager in New York. He acted as "comedy consultant" to Matthew Broderick and David Arquette, whom he taught "the basics of tripping."

Given all the fancy footwork Pisoni has to do in "Equus" - on a moving stage, no less, in an aluminum mask and 7-inch metal "hooves" - he has worked hard on not tripping, especially when Radcliffe, his heels dug into stirrups around Pisoni's waist, is on his back.

"The other night, Dan got his foot stuck in my harness, and my instinct to hold his leg was probably not the wisest thing," Pisoni says, ruefully.

"With people seated on the stage, we couldn't say anything, but he tapped my back, like, 'Let go of me,' and his message came through loud and clear . . .

"He's fantastic," Pisoni adds. "Very sharp, well-read and with a wicked sense of humor. [The show] is not about him, it's about us."

That said, he adds, "I don't want to be known as the guy who dropped Harry Potter."

(Article from the New York Post)