The Boy Who Lived is now the boy with a Tony.
Daniel Radcliffe, who starred in the “Harry Potter” film series from ages 11 to 21, won a Tony Award for best performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical for his performance as Charley Kringas in the Broadway revival of “Merrily We Roll Along.”
It is Radcliffe’s first major acting award, first Tony nomination and first Tony win.
“I’m going to talk fast and try not to cry… I don’t even have to act in this show,” Radcliffe said in his acceptance speech, referring to his close friendship with his co-stars. “I will never have it this good again.”
“When I finished ‘Potter,’ I had no idea what my career was going to be,” Radcliffe said after accepting his award, according to a video recording posted to X by Deadline. “Playing one character for so long kind of builds up in you a desire to do as many things as you possibly can.”
The Stephen Sondheim musical was an infamous Broadway flop when it debuted in 1981, closing after just 16 performances. Three years after Sondheim’s death, the show was reworked by director Maria Friedman and helmed by an all-star trio, Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Radcliffe.
“Harry Potter is going to be the first line of my obituary,” Radcliffe, 34, told The Atlantic in April. “I wanted to try as many different things under my belt, knowing that it was going to be the accumulation of all of those things, rather than one thing, that would actually sort of transition me in people’s minds.”
Following the eight-film “Potter” series, Radcliffe took on many stage and indie films opportunities.
He made his Broadway debut in 2008, starring in a revival of “Equus” that required him to perform nude. He sang on a Broadway stage for the first time in the 2011 revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
His other Broadway credits include “The Cripple of Inishmaan” and “The Lifespan of a Fact.”
Radcliffe has been a part of the “Merrily We Roll Along” cast since its off-Broadway run at the New York Theater Workshop. The production transferred to Broadway in October and is scheduled to close on July 7.
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