Daniel Radcliffe From Stage to Screen: HARRY POTTER to MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG

Though the revival of Merrily We Roll Along ended its limited Broadway run in 2024, the show will live on in the form of the new filmed version, now in theaters. To celebrate the release of the hit Stephen Sondheim musical, we are taking a look back at the storied careers of its three leading stars, starting with Tony Award-winner Daniel Radcliffe.

Though known worldwide for his star-making turn as the title role in the hit Harry Potter film series, the glasses-wearing wizard was not his on-screen role. In 1999, two years before Harry Potter hit screens, Radcliffe starred as the young version of David Copperfield in a BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel. This performance led to his being cast in Harry Potter after director Chris Columbus was impressed with a clip of the young actor.

For 10 years— from 2001 to 2011— Radcliffe’s onscreen career was almost entirely consumed by the film franchise. Still, that didn’t stop the actor from catching the theater bug. During a hiatus from filming, Radcliffe made his professional stage debut in 2007 as Alan Strang in Equus on the West End, starring alongside Potter co-star Richard Griffiths. The production later moved to Broadway, with Radcliffe garnering a Drama Desk nomination for his performance. 

In 2011, the same year that the final Potter film opened in theaters, Radcliffe returned to Broadway for a leading role in his first musical: J. Pierrepont Finch in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He received another Drama Desk nomination and stayed with the production for ten months, officially departing at the beginning of 2012.

Over the next few years, Radcliffe would take on a variety of genres in different film projects. His first onscreen leading role after Potter was The Woman in Black, a horror film based on the novel of the same name. He tackled the biopic in 2013's Kill Your Darlings, romantic comedy in The F Word (also 2013), and played the hunchbacked Igor to James McAvoy’s Dr. Frankenstein in 2015’s Victor Frankenstein.

The following year, he went on to star in the absurdist film Swiss Army Man. Written and directed by the Daniels (who later helmed the 2022 hit Everything Everywhere All at Once), the film follows a marooned man, played by Paul Dano, who befriends a farting corpse that washes up on the shore. For his performance as the childlike corpse Manny, Radcliffe received critical acclaim.

Amid his film career, he stayed active on the stage. The actor played the role of Billy in a revival of Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan, first on the West End and then in a limited run on Broadway, where he earned another Drama Desk nomination. In 2016, he starred in the New York premiere of James Graham's play Privacy at The Public, which examines the complications of technology and security in the age of the Internet.

At the Old Vic, Radcliffe starred opposite Joshua McGuire in a 2017 revival of the Tom Stoppard favorite Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. With a cast that also included David Haig as The Player, the production was notable for being staged 50 years after the play's initial debut in 1967. The production was filmed for National Theatre Live. 

In 2018, Radcliffe returned to Broadway in The Lifespan of a Fact at Studio 54, appearing alongside Cherry Jones and Bobby Cannavale. Based on the book of the same name about the ins and outs of fact-checking, Radcliffe spent some time working with The New Yorker's fact-checking department in preparation for his role.

Radcliffe's next stage project was a Samuel Beckett doubleheader at the Old Vic featuring the plays Endgame and Rough for Theatre II. Starring opposite Alan Cumming, the production ended its run two weeks early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Old Vic teamed up with Digital Theatre to make digital screenings available for ticket holders.

2022 saw Radcliffe lean into his comedy chops with two high-profile (though very different) screen projects. In March, the performer played the villainous billionaire Abigail Fairfax in the action comedy The Lost City, led by Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. Later in the year, he starred as the title role in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Written and developed with the beloved songwriter, the parody film received praise from both viewers and critics, with Radcliffe receiving an Emmy nomination for his performance.

That November, Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez starred in an off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. Spanning three decades, the musical moves backwards, charting the relationship between three old friends: composer Franklin Shepard (Groff), writer Mary Flynn (Mendez), and lyricist & playwright Charley Kringas (Radcliffe).

Opening only a year after the passing of the renowned composer, the production was directed by Maria Friedman, who worked closely with Sondheim on a previous West End production. Originally considered a flop when it debuted on Broadway in 1981, this new version achieved near-unanimous rave reviews, and news quickly followed that it would transfer to Broadway in 2023.

Playing over 300 performances at the Hudson Theatre, the Broadway production garnered several Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Radcliffe, marking both his first Tony nomination and win. Late in its run, the production was filmed by RadicalMedia, the company behind filmed versions of other musicals, including Hamilton. The cinematic interpretation opens in theaters worldwide on December 5 by Sony Pictures Classics in collaboration with Fathom Entertainment.

Next year, Radcliffe will once again return to the Broadway stage in the solo show Every Brilliant Thing. The play follows a man who looks back at his life through a list of every wonderful, beautiful, and delightful thing he can think of. Written by Olivier Award nominee Duncan MacMillan with Jonny Donahoe and directed by Olivier & Tony Award nominee Jeremy Herrin & Duncan MacMillan, the play begins previews on Saturday, February 21, 2026, ahead of an official opening night of Thursday, March 12, for a limited thirteen-week engagement through May 24, 2026 at The Hudson Theatre.

In the meantime, audiences everywhere can revisit Radcliffe's Tony Award-winning performance as Charley Kringas in Merrily We Roll Along. Don't miss Sondheim’s iconic masterpiece as it hits movie theaters nationwide on December 5. Get your tickets now.