Daniel Radcliffe to return to the London stage in How To Succeed in Business?
March 23, 2011
Rumours are buzzing that Daniel Radcliffe may bring his starring role in Broadway’s How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying to London.
The show is currently in previews at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York, opening on 27 March, and is attracting lots of attention, not least for Radcliffe’s song and dance star-turn as J. Pierrepont Finch, who climbs the corporate ladder from window cleaner to chairman of the board!
If it’s a Broadway smash then Radcliffe’s reinvention post Harry Potter would be complete before the last Potter movie is even released. London would be an obvious transfer destination for the show, especially given that US producers include British theatre producer heavyweights John Gore, Wicked’s Michael McCabe and the Old Vic’s Joseph Smith.
Radcliffe’s new movie based on The Woman in Black is also set for release later this year.
LINKS
RUMOUR CHECK-LIST
- Show: How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying
- Director: Rob Ashford
- Casting: Daniel Radcliffe, John Larroquette, Rose Hemingway
- London Dates: ?
Source: Various
Daniel Radcliffe, star of Broadway's How To Succeed...
Daniel Radcliffe in How To Succeed…
March 9, 2011
Harry Potter star to make Broadway musical debut in classic musical
Daniel Radcliffe in How To Succeed...
Life after Harry Potter is going to be particularly glamorous for Daniel Radcliffe as he is currently starring in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (now in previews, opens 27 March).
The show has hit the press recently over rumours that Warner Bros. are furious with the show’s producers for not letting Radcliffe out of performances to promote the final Harry Potter film later in the year.
The show is directed and choreographed by Tony award winner Rob Ashford (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Promises, Promises), who is an associate director of the Donmar Warehouse. Based on Frank Loesser’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1961 satirical musical, the play follows J. Pierrepont Finch (Daniel Radcliffe), who, armed with a guidebook called How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, follows the book’s rules on how to climb the corporate ladder, going from window cleaner to chairman of the board!
Other cast in the show include John Larroquette as J. B. Biggley, Rose Hemingway as Rosemary Pilkington, Tammy Blanchard as Hedy La Rue, Christopher J. Hanke as Bud Frump, Rob Bartlett as Twimble/Wally Womper, Mary Faber as Smitty, Ellen Harvey as Miss Jones, Michael Park as Bert Bratt and CNN journalist Anderson Cooper as the voice of the narrator.
BROADWAY UPDATE: Spiderman
May 14, 2010
BROADWAY UPDATE: Reeve Carney, Daniel Radcliffe, Christina Ricci, Lee Aaron Rosen, Douglas Hodge, Jonathan Groff and more…
SPIDER-MAN:
Reeve Carney
The pain of mounting Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark continues apace. Financial problems have dogged pre-production of the enormous project but it seems that rehearsals will finally begin this summer for a November opening at the Hilton Theatre.
Directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King) with music by Bono, Alan Cumming dropped out as the Green Goblin, with rumours that Patrick Page (Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas) will take the role.
The latest name attached to play Spidey himself is Reeve Carney, who’s just finished playing Ferdinand in Taymor’s new film version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, alongside Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina, Alan Cumming, Chris Cooper and Ben Whishaw.
The investment in mounting Spider-Man is believed to huge, and the show is having to rip apart the Hilton Theatre to accommodate the lavish and complex sets.
BROADWAY MONEY:
Broadway - massive economic impact
The Broadway League, Broadway’s trade body, released its biannual report this week on the economic impact of spending by Broadway production companies, theatre operators and visitors drawn to New York by Broadway. The figures come close to $10 billion in the 2008-09 season, which is a whole lot of money.
Charlotte St. Martin, Executive Director of The Broadway League, said that the figures, “remind us of how important Broadway is to tourism.” The majority of the money stemmed from visitors’ spending on hotels, restaurants, shopping and transport. Broadway also supported 84,400 jobs and generated $477.7 million in New York City taxes, according to the report. The increasingly lavish spending by producers on new productions (see above) also boosted the total.
We haven’t yet seen the Society of London Theatre’s recently published West End Theatre Audience Report 2010 to determine if a calculation on the West End Theatre’s economic impact on London has been made, but the last public figure was way back in 1997 in their Wyndham Report. This tallied the impact at just over £1 billion. Given that box office revenue was over half a billion pounds in 2009 we imagine the economic impact has gone up somewhat since then.
TALENT UPDATE:
Lee Aaron Rosen
Ricci Time: She didn’t have the good sense to get a part in The Addams Family on Broadway (!) so Christina Ricci is making do by joining the Tony nominated play Time Stands Still in September, replacing Alicia Silverstone in the play that also stars Laura Linney. Linney is currently filming her new Showtime TV series The Big C.
Hunk-with-talent Alert: Lee Aaron Rosen has just wowed critics in the Atlantic Theater Company’s new production of English playwright Moira Buffini’s Gabriel at the Linda Gross Theater in New York. The play first premiered at the Soho Theatre in London in 1997. Needless-to-say that Mr Rosen is being pitched as “one to watch” for multiple reasons.
Dan Does Dance: Daniel Radcliffe is putting in the practice for his Broadway role in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, working with a vocal and dance coach in London ahead of rehearsals beginning February 2011. Now that’s forward-planning! The show will be directed by Rob Ashford and co-star Rose Hemingway.
The Mask of Zorba: Antonio Banderas has told WENN that he plans to go back to Broadway next year in a revival of the 1968 Kander and Ebb musical Zorba – based on Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel Zorba The Greek.
OTHER NEWS:
Hodge Honour: Awards guru Tom O’Neil in the LA Times thinks that Douglas Hodge is a shoo-in for the Best Actor in a Musical Tony award, to be announced in June. Hodge received fabulous notices for his performance as Albin in the Broadway transfer of the Menier Chocolate Factory’s production of La Cage Aux Folles.
Glad to be Glee: It seems that the spitting and fury over Newsweek’s recent article by arts critic Ramin Setoodeh, arguing that gay actors can’t be taken seriously in straight roles, has finally subsided. Much of Broadway has been up in arms over the article – in which Setoodeh refers to Sean Hayes’ performance in Broadway’s Promises, Promises as “weird seeing Hayes play straight,” and also references Glee’s Jonathan Groff. Glee creator Ryan Murphy waged in calling for an all-out boycott of the magazine for its homophobic opinion. It now seems that Ramin and Ryan have made up. Groff, who is openly gay, will be winging his way to London in the summer to appear alongside Simon Russell-Beale in Deathtrap at the Noel Coward Theatre.
REVIEWS:
Popular theatre blog West End Whingers made a Broadway sojourn recently and posted a great round-up of what to see – and what not.
