Daniel Radcliffe: Who Knew Harry Potter Was a Triple Threat?

When he signed on for the lead role in the Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Daniel Radcliffe told director Rob Ashford that he wasn’t a dancer. It’s not unusual for Broadway shows to cast big names in order to fill the audience, sacrificing some stage talent in exchange for publicity. But Daniel was either being incredibly modest or he took a lot of classes before the show opened, because his moves are impeccable. In the dance-heavy show, he holds his own against his cast members, including a pas de deux with costar John Larroquette, who is almost a foot taller than him.

The boy known as Harry Potter transforms himself completely in How to Succeed, balancing his spot-on American accent with singing, dancing, and selling us on the story of a young man who works his way from the mailroom to the top of the company. In the show’s big dance number, “Brotherhood of Man,” he even dances interlocked with several other men, not missing a step. It’s clear from watching this show that Daniel Radcliffe is much, much more than the kid from those popular movies – he’s a genuine talent. If he can live comfortably off of his Harry Potter earnings for the rest of his life and only take projects that he’s personally interested in doing, he has the opportunity to grow into the best actor of his generation. He can sing! He can dance! And he’s a real, live, completely unassuming, hardworking star. And I predict he’ll someday – perhaps sooner than later – be a star with a Tony on his mantel.