Daniel Radcliffe Solidifies His Broadway Return
As reported by Deadline, Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry Jones, and Bobby Cannavale will make their return to an NYC stage next fall for the world premiere of The Lifespan of a Fact on Broadway. The play, based on the critically acclaimed, bestselling 2012 non-fiction book, Lifespan, will be directed by Leigh Silverman, who was nominated by The Tony Awards in 2014 for her direction of the hit show Violet.
Although best known for his leading role in the Harry Potter movie franchise as the title character, this will not be Radcliffe’s first foray with the live stage.
The actor held a role in the 2016 sold-out run of Privacy at The Public Theatre in New York, as well as the 2013 West End production of The Cripple of Inishmaan, which eventually moved its home to Broadway. He also held a supporting role in the another Broadway smash, 2011’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Jones, known for her role in Transparent, has countless stage credits including but not limited to Tony-winning performances in The Heiress and Doubt.
Cannavale, famous for his choice spots on Boardwalk Empire and Vinyl, is also not unfamiliar with the live stage, boasting an impressive list of credits himself, including Tony-nominated runs in 2007’s Mauritius and 2011’s The Motherf**ker With The Hat.
The live adaptation of the book, created by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell, retells the novel originally written by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal.
D’Agata penned an essay titled What Happens Here about the events that occurred while he was investigating the suicide. Fingal was assigned with the task of fact-checking all the information composed by D’Agata. In this task, however, there were numerous issues, pieces of misinformation, and fallacies that started a nearly decade-long debate as to what was truly non-fiction or not about the novel.
After submitting his essay to Harper’s Magazine in 2003, the publication began to find even more inaccuracies in the writing, leading to them pulling the article from circulation, citing how Fingal’s research turned up factual errors and inaccuracies.
After seven years of discussion over how to reapproach its composition between D’Agata and Fingal, the two re-submitted the piece to a different publication, The Believer magazine.
Following that being accepted, D’Agata and Fingal co-wrote the 2012 book The Lifespan of a Fact to tell the full story of everything that had occurred since the beginning of their investigation.
After it’s release, the duo’s work received critical acclaim with the awards of Best Book of the Year from the Huffington Post, a Top 10 Most Crucial Book of the year from Slate, as well as an Editor’s Choice by The New York Times Book Review.
In the new play, Radcliffe will play Fingal, Cannavale will play D’Agata, and Jones will play Fingal’s boss. However, the production’s creative team – sets, costumes, lighting, sound, and projections have not been revealed to the public yet.
The entire show will be produced on Broadway by Jeffrey Richards, Norman and Deanna Twain, Will Trice, Barbara Freitag, Eric Falkenstein, Carl Moellenberg, Wendy Federman, Ken Greiner, Van Kaplan, and Caiola Productions.
The Lifespan of a Fact will host its first performance at Broadway’s Studio 54 theater Thursday, September 20, with a public opening night slated for Thursday, October 18. The limited engagement will run for 16 weeks.
Tickets for the show will be made available to the general public June 22 but will be made available even earlier than that for Audience Rewards members and American Express Card Members.
