The Boy Who Lived is finally the Actor Who Got Nominated (for a Tony).
Daniel Radcliffe, who as a child actor became globally recognizable by playing Harry Potter in all eight films, notched his first Tony nomination on Tuesday for his work in one of this season’s biggest Broadway hits: an acclaimed revival of the musical “Merrily We Roll Along.”
The nod has been a long time coming — in his post-Potter life, Radcliffe has consistently made artistically ambitious, and occasionally risky, choices in both stage and film roles. He has returned often to Broadway — “Merrily” is his fifth role since 2008, following “Equus” (which required him to take off his clothes), “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (which required him to sing), “The Cripple of Inishmaan” and “The Lifespan of a Fact.”
“Merrily” is a 1981 musical by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth about the gradual implosion of a three-way friendship; in the current revival, Radcliffe plays Charley Kringas, a lyricist and playwright. Reviewing the production in The New York Times, the chief theater critic Jesse Green praised Radcliffe for “wit and modesty,” and said he handled his character’s big song “superbly.”
