- NEW YORK: Given the economic climate of the past couple of years, is this really the right time to cheer a scheming, backbiting and unfit rascal businessman as he manipulates his way to the top of a bloated corporation?
Not if it’s Daniel Radcliffe who is playing the lovable go-getter J. Pierrepont Finch in a lush revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” that opened Sunday at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Radcliffe is doubly brave here. He’s tackling his first musical and a tricky role in 2011: A con man with little business acumen who uses insinuation and flattery to get ahead, ultimately destroying his company in the process. But Radcliffe is so darn adorable in this production led by director Rob Ashford that more than pockets of smitten teenage girls in the audience will be rooting for his unlikely rise from window washer to chairman of the board.