Daniel Radcliffe to Co-Star With Cherry Jones and Bobby Cannavale on Broadway

NEW YORK — Daniel Radcliffe is returning to Broadway, and to exploring the particular challenges of the Information Age, in a new play about an epic and thought-provoking battle between a writer and a fact-checker.

Radcliffe will co-star with Cherry Jones and Bobby Cannavale in “The Lifespan of a Fact,” a new play adapted from a 2012 book about the real-life, multiyear, wildly tortured editing of a magazine essay about an adolescent’s suicide.

Radcliffe will play the scrupulous fact-checker, Jim Fingal, and Cannavale will play the essayist, John D’Agata, whose occasional prioritization of artistry over precision prompted a debate over the nature of truth and the meaning of accuracy. Jones will play a fictionalized version of Fingal’s boss.

Radcliffe, of course, is most famous for playing the title role in all eight “Harry Potter” films. But in the years since, he has taken on increasingly challenging stage and film roles. This will be his first time originating a role on Broadway, but he has appeared in three revivals: “The Cripple of Inishmaan,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and “Equus.” His most recent, and relevant, New York stage role was off-Broadway in 2016, when he starred at the Public Theater in “Privacy,” a play that explored the exposure of personal information via technology.

Jones is a two-time Tony winner, for “Doubt” and “The Heiress,” who last appeared on Broadway in a 2013 revival of “The Glass Menagerie.” Cannavale last appeared on Broadway that same year, in “The Big Knife.”

The book version of “The Lifespan of a Fact” was written by Fingal and D’Agata. The play is being written by three Broadway newcomers, Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell. Farrell teaches playwriting at NYU.

The play is to be directed by Leigh Silverman (“Violet”), with Jeffrey Richards, Deanna Twain and Will Trice as the lead producers.

It is to begin performances Sept. 20 and to open Oct. 18 at Studio 54 on Broadway.