Daniel Radcliffe was barely hanging up his wizarding robes when he started taking on fresh, challenging new performances in stage and film. Radcliffe’s theatre career started with Equus in 2007; his second return to stage was in 2011 with the lead role in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Now he’s back in The Cripple of Inishmaan, a Broadway adaptation of the Martin McDonagh play he starred in across the pond in London.

Radcliffe is eager at the chance to be on stage for an American audience again. “I love working and living in New York; it’s one of those situations where [I have] the chance to spend a lot of time in a city that I love and doing a play that I love,” he tells Entertainment Weekly. Radcliffe also says that one of the reasons he loves performing for American crowds is that they’re “much louder:” “When somebody says something totally shocking and you hear that wonderful intake of shocked breath from the audience, I remember thinking how great that reaction would be in the States. It’s pretty exciting as an actor to get the audience to a point where they’re laughing, almost in spite of themselves.”

I'm going to see Daniel Radcliffe on Broadway. Be jealous.

— Kaos Cumberbatch (@KaosCumberbatch) March 25, 2014

The Cripple of Inishmaan is a dark comedy about an Irish boy (Radcliffe) who dreams of appearing in a documentary filmed by Hollywood on a neighboring island. Even though the play is dark and cruel, Daniel also knows audiences will enjoy its tender side: “I don’t think people expected it to have this really heartbreaking, very beautiful side to it as well, and I think that’s what makes it work.”

Radcliffe was drawn to the play for its dark comedy, saying that he’s “always loved watching it as well as performing it.” But what’s his ideal role? I would love to do a big film musical,” Dan says. “I think when they’re done right, they’re incredibly exciting and fun and cool. What was that slightly bizarre but wonderful John Turturro film? Romance & Cigarettes. It’s a bizarre musical, and I love weird, interesting, different stuff like that.”

No doubt we’d love to see Dan do weird and interesting stuff like that, too.

The Cripple of Inishmaan opens April 20th. Check out a preview of the play below:

#Previews for THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN begin on April 12! http://t.co/E9PKBeIq6b #broadway #InishmaanBway #DanielRadcliffe #theatre

— Cripple of Inishmaan (@InishmaanBway) March 26, 2014

Image via Wikimedia Commons