Wizards and Muggles alike have been turning up on Broadway and Off-Broadway stages of late, and next up is Rupert Grint, best known as Harry Potter's friend and classmate Ron Weasley in the films. Grint will debut this fall in a revised version of Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play with a star-studded cast that also features Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, Stockard Channing and F. Murray Abraham.
Daniel Radcliffe, "Harry Potter" himself, is currently in a Tony-nominated production of The Cripple of Inishmaan. He appeared previously on Broadway in Equus and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Harry Melling (Dudley Dursely in the Harry Potter movies) appeared opposite Frank Langella as Lear's Fool at BAM this past winter, and brought his own one-man show, Peddling, to Off-Broadway's 59E59 Theaters in the spring.
What about Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the blockbuster series of wizardly films? Though the actress has no professional theater experience, last year she announced her intention to tread the boards as the next phase in her career. So we may soon see yet another of the younger generation of Harry Potter alums on stage.
A bit ahead of his former co-star, Grint made his stage debut last year in Jez Butterworth's Mojo at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End.
Jack O'Brien will direct him in It's Only a Play, McNally's play-about-a-play, beginning this fall at the Schoenfeld Theatre in a 17-week engagement officially opening October 9 and running through January 4, 2015. Grint will play the director of a play by Broderick's character on its opening night. Perhaps the erstwhile wizard has always wanted to direct?
