How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: Daniel Radcliffe to star

Daniel Radcliffe - aka Harry Potter to millions around the world - will make his Broadway musical debut as 'J. Pierrepont Finch' in a new production of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, which is expected to arrive in the Spring of 2011, which is to be directed and choreographed by Tony and Emmy Award winner Rob Ashford.

Radcliffe starred as 'J. Pierrepont Finch' in a reading of the musical in Dec 2009 in Manhattan, which Rob Ashford was attached to as director and choreographer.

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying will follow Daniel Radcliffe's completion of filming 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,' the final film of the largest grossing franchise in motion picture history. Further casting and a Broadway theater for this new production will be announced shortly.

Daniel Radcliffe made his Broadway debut when he starred as 'Alan Strang' in 'Equus,' which played at the Broadhurst Theatre from 5 Sep 2008 - 8 Feb 2009. The actor made his London debut in the same production when it played in the West End earlier in 2008.

Rob Ashford is director and choreographer of the current Broadway revival of 'Promises, Promises' starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. He won a Tony Award for Best Choreography for 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' in 2002, and was recently awarded an Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography for his work on the 81st Annual Academy Awards.

Following the advice of a book entitled "How to Succeed in Business" a young window-cleaner, J. Pierrepont Finch, begins a meteoric rise from the mail-room to Vice President of Advertising at the World-Wide Wicket Company. Finch's unorthodox and morally-questionable business practices jeopardize not only his career but also his romance with Secretary Rosemary Pilkington. With a score by Frank Loesser, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying songs include "I Believe in You," "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm," "The Company Way," "Been a Long Day," "Rosemary," and "Brotherhood of Man."

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying has a book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's satirical self-help book How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser.

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying is produced by Broadway Across America (John Gore, Thomas B. McGrath, Beth Williams), Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the team behind the current Broadway revival of 'Promises,Promises' starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth.

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying opened to critical acclaim at the 46TH Street Theatre (Richard Rodgers) on Broadway in Oct 1961, running for 1,417 performances. The cast starred Robert Morse as Finch, Bonnie Scott as Rosemary, Charles Nelson Reilly as Bud Frump, and Rudy Vallee as the President of the World-Wide Wicket Company. The show won seven Tony Awards including best musical and best book, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best musical, a Grammy for best original cast show album, and is one of only eight musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 1967, a film based on the musical was released by United Artists, with Morse and Vallee recreating their Broadway roles and Michele Lee as Rosemary.

In 1995, a revival directed by Des McAnuff starring Matthew Broderick as Finch and Megan Mullally as Rosemary ran for 548 performances at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.