Daniel Radcliffe in HOW TO SUCCEED

I think your assessment pretty much sums it up.

Recently rewatching clips of him in the role, it isn’t the singing or the acting that really impresses me, so much as the full-on dancing he does. It’s not easy choreography, and he nails it (at least from this non-dancer’s perspective). His singing was ok, particularly considering he hadn’t ever sung before.

His American accent has come a long way since then. The difference between this vs. Lifespan of a Fact is pretty notable. Though it might also be that the wide, expressive nature of a musical comedy made it harder to keep the accent grounded.

I do remember him being very charismatic in the role as well.

As for the Tonys - it was a particularly strong year for Best Actor in a Musical, particularly with BOTH Book of Mormon boys taking up slots. As much as I adore Radcliffe and wish he had a long-awaited Tony nomination to his name, I think the Tonys made the right call that year. Radcliffe was good, but the 5 nominees were better. And the fact that they went with Josh Henry (a comparatively unknown name then, in an extremely risky, weighty show) speaks well for them.

I wasn’t on the chat boards back then, nor did a religiously read reviews or op-eds. But I seem to recall there being some debate about: “do we praise/award a big star for putting in a massive amount of effort, learning to sing/dance from scratch, and pulling it off through sheer determination? Or do we call a rose a rose, and say: he may have worked his ass off, but the singing just isn’t up to Broadway standards?”

I mentioned this in the other thread, but this is partly why I’m so excited for Merrily. Radlciffe’s post-Potter MO has been “stretch myself as much as possible” - he picks challenging projects that will push the limits of his abilities, and then he works his ass off and always pulls it off. But rather than continuing to perfect those skills, he moves on to another challenge. I.e “Jack of all trades, but master of none.”

The closest he’s come to really honing a specific acting skillset has been with comedy - he’s proven himself to be a really solid comedic actor over the years. But now I’m so excited to see him take on another musical, this time a drama.

Looking at the grosses, it seems like he pulled in decent numbers but not actually as much as I would’ve expected, particularly before and after the summer. Seems like they did quite well that Summer - which, unsurprisingly I guess, when I saw it. I have fond memories of rushing the show, though not-so-find memories of the awful, madhouse stage door.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/grosses/HOW-TO-SUCCEED-IN-BUSINESS-WITHOUT-REALLY-TRYING

I remember that within the conversations about Radcliffe and the Tony noms/awards was that you had the season before reward all big name celebrities: (Scarlett Johansson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Viola Davis, Denzel Washington, etc.) There was division that the Tony's was rewarded them because they needed a boost after the recession. Therefore, Radcliffe's lack of nomination the next season was seen (by some) as a "but this celebrity is actually good in his role, he should be rewarded".

He, Benjamin Walker and Aaron Tveit were all snubbed in an insanely good year for musicals. All incredible performances, especially Walker's.

I loved this production and thought he was certainly deserving of a nomination. Brotherhood of Man was pure bliss - the choreography was particularly sizzling. Somewhat unrelated, but this revival mostly sticks out in my mind for a totally different reason - the first time I went to see it, the show was delayed in starting. Finally, Radcliffe and John Larroquette came on stage and informed the audience that a crew member had died right before the show was set to start, and that the performance was not going to go on. I believe it later came out that he had overdosed backstage or something. Very sad, and also I think the first time a Broadway performance had been cancelled since 9/11. I may be making that up, but that's my recollection.