HARRY POTTER - RADCLIFFE SET FOR BROADWAY

RADCLIFFE SET FOR BROADWAY

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is to make his Broadway debut next year when the play Equus begins its run on the New York stage.

The 18-year-old completed a critically lauded eight-week run in Peter Shaffer's play at London's Gielgud Theatre earlier this year and will now tread the boards on the Great White Way.

The play - expected to open on Broadway in September 2008 - tells the tale of a disturbed youngster who blinds horses - and requires the teenage actor to appear fully nude on stage.

However initial worries about the acting talents of the Boy Who Lived were soon assuaged by Radcliffe's dazzling performances, highly praised by his fellow thespians.

And the young star told the BBC he is "incredibly excited" about taking the play to the Big Apple.

"Of course there's nerves. If I wasn't nervous then I would be dead," he said.

"It's a good thing, it's healthy. I'm obviously nervous but I'm very, very excited," he added.

The complex production was first staged in London in 1973 and won a Tony award for best play in its first New York run.

"If we can get a straight play to really succeed in a world of theatre that is so besieged by musicals, that would be a real achievement and I think the time is absolutely right to do it there," Radcliffe continued.

"For a kid who grew up listening to showbiz tunes in the car, Broadway is a big, big thing.

"All the people I know in New York say New York is ready for this kind of play," he added.

Radcliffe also stars as Rudyard Kipling's ill-fated son in ITV1 wartime drama My Boy Jack this Sunday.