Equus Update: Rehearsals Scheduled; Staging News; Director Interview

We have told you that Daniel Radcliffe will be starring with Richard Griffiths in a new West End production of “Equus” next year. The Daily Mail is now reporting that rehearsals for the play will begin on January 3, 2007 and will have a 16 week run “at the Gielgud Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, with previews starting on February 16 and an official opening night planned for February 27.” The article also says that “Equus” will be staged in a manner consistent with past productions: Sixty audience members will be seated onstage.
Thea Sharrock, who will direct the play, has given a new interview about her career. She has this to say about taking on “Equus” with such a high-profile, yet theatrically inexperienced, actor in the leading role:

“The speculation is not my problem . . . I’ve just got to get on with the job. I think you get into real trouble the minute you start worrying about that kind of thing. I suspect that play itself would bring along a fair amount of speculation but then the minute you have Daniel Radcliffe in it, it brings it to a whole new level, but much like him, it’s not what I’m concentrating on; we’re just getting on with the play.”