UPDATE:
Here is a nice video from CBS News Video talking about Daniel's new role.
The time has finally arrived, today Feb 27, 2007 has been the official opening night for Equus, and here are some rave reviews of Dan's performance.
From Broadway World
“Equus” Gallops Back Into the West End
"Peter Shaffer’s 1973 play, “Equus”, a thoroughly absorbing and gripping psychological drama, rears its head once more in the West End in Thea Sharrock’s revival at the Gielgud theatre. And the play has lost none of its power and ability to challenge the mind and shock the senses.
As Alan Strang, Daniel Radcliffe is a total revelation. Casting off his Harry Potter magician’s hat, he gives a performance of amazing maturity. At the right times boyishly cute and winsome, he is also convincingly troubled, withdrawn and disturbed, bursting into fury in a way that is for one special moment quite heart-breaking."
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From The Telegraph
"Regular readers may recall that I am no great fan of the playwright Peter Schaffer, and Equus (1973) seems to me to contain every bit as much phoney baloney and pseudo-profundity as such other of his hits at Amadeus and the Royal Hunt of the Sun.
"And even I must concede that Equus, which I last saw as a trainee reviewer in the mid-70s, packs a terrific theatrical punch in Thea Sharrock's powerful revival, evocatively designed once again by John Napier.
"Better yet, Daniel Radcliffe brilliantly succeeds in throwing off the mantle of Harry Potter, announcing himself as a thrilling stage actor of unexpected range and depth.
"Despite minimal previous theatrical experience Radcliffe here displays a dramatic power and an electrifying stage presence that marks a tremendous leap forward.
"I never thought I would find the diminutive (but perfectly formed) Radcliffe a sinister figure, but as Alan Strang, the play's teenage anti-hero who undergoes psychotherapy after viciously blinding six horses, there are moments when he seems genuinely scary in his rage and confusion. There are fleeting instants when you even detect a hint of Voldemort-like evil in his hooded eyes.
"It's an illusion of course - Strang is just a classic mixed-up kid, lonely, sexually confused, and with a love of horses which has become disastrously tangled up with his mother's hard-line Christianity.
"It helps of course that at 17, Radcliffe is exactly the same age as the character he is playing, and he superbly lays bare the sheer rawness of youth, the sudden mood swings of adolescence, and that intense unforgettable feeling that you are in a hostile world all on your own. I have a hunch that this play is going to attract a very large audience of devoted teenage girls.
"The actor keeps turning the emotion on a sixpence, switching from sullen anger to raw vulnerability, or from terrible pain to a sudden childlike innocence and charm. And in the nude sex scene that has had all the media in such a tizzy, he and his partner Joanna Christie beautifully capture the awkward tenderness of young love before the action moves into altogether darker territory."
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From the Herald Tribune
"The play is indeed a brave choice, but also a sensible one for a very famous young actor who has said he wants "to shake up people's perception of me."
"Almost grown, lightly muscled, sporting the first shoots of a beard, Radcliffe is well suited to the role of Alan Strang, a young stable boy sent to a psychiatric hospital after committing a brutal, seemingly inexplicable crime — he has blinded six horses with a metal spike.
"For the most part, Radcliffe's performance is assured. Radcliffe's vocal range may be a bit narrow — he has a tendency to convey Strang's anguish by shouting — but his hooded eyes and hunched, defensive posture convey a wounded and bewildered young man. And when he finally lets loose in the climactic 10 minutes of — full, sensitively lit — nudity, he is emotionally unrestrained and compelling.
"This production will pack in the crowds thanks to Radcliffe's fame and the unstoppable Harry Potter brand. It deserves to succeed on its own merits. Radcliffe proves he can shed, at least temporarily, the boy wizard's robes."
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From Reuters
"Radcliffe, who found fame as the young wizard in the Potter films, plays a troubled stable boy who ritualistically blinds horses in a production that has caused a flurry of excitement among his hordes of teenage fans.
"He won a standing ovation on the opening night at London's Gielgud Theater and fellow actors who came to watch were full of praise for his courage in taking on such a grueling role.
" 'I am so impressed with his choice of play and the career Daniel Radcliffe is having,' Hollywood star Christian Slater told Reuters
" 'It is an incredible part for a young actor. He is taking a big risk,' actor Richard E. Grant said."
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From the Independent
"He wants it all, that Daniel Radcliffe. Having landed what is unquestionably the best film role for a male teenager, he is now making his West End stage debut in what is for my money the best theatrical role for a male teenager.
"In the event, Radcliffe acquits himself well. He is not the most expressive of actors, and his stage presence will take time to evolve; but from the moment he enters the psychiatrist's office, shoulders hunched, eyes narrowed and singing advertising jingles to avoid questioning, he cuts a compelling figure. As the evening goes on, there are moments when he touches, even if not tugs at, the heart strings. One feels for this boy because one senses from his performance a repression hiding a reservoir of feelings desperate to burst."
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Here are some new pictures of today's official opening.
Getty
Wenn (VIP press night)
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