Why Daniel Radcliffe is not content to Potter around

PUBLISHED: 17:59 EST, 21 March 2013 | UPDATED: 18:54 EST, 21 March 2013

In training: Daniel Radcliffe has gone to great lengths to prepare for his new role

Daniel Radcliffe has been putting himself through a punishing training routine for his next theatre role.

The former Harry Potter star will take the title role in Martin McDonaghs black comedy The Cripple Of Inishmaan, in which he plays a young lad with a degenerative muscle disease.

Ive been working with a consultant trainer who helps people who have multiple sclerosis, because Billy the boy I play is crippled in his legs and his back has gone. I wanted to find a way of conveying his illness in a manner Id be able to perform every night, Daniel told me.

If you do these things the wrong way, you can end up with serious back or walking problems.

Its not actually specified whats wrong with Billy. But reading through the play, it seemed that multiple sclerosis might be closest to what he has.

The actor does nothing by halves when he tackles a theatre role. His stage debut was in Peter Shaffers Equus, opposite Richard Griffiths, which he performed in London and New York. He then learned how to sing and dance for How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying on Broadway.

What I like about him is that he could have taken on something easy, like an Agatha Christie revival, but chose instead pieces that require proper acting, not just a phoned-in star performance.

The Crip! ple Of Inishmaan will be directed by Michael Grandage, as the third play in his season at the Noel Coward.

The second John Logans Peter And Alice, with Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw opens officially on Monday.

Rosario's heist society

Rosario Dawson was raised on the Lower East Side of New York in the days when it was a tough neighbourhood so when she saw a man flashing on the top deck of a London bus, she was not fazed.

I said: Oi! Put it away! and went downstairs and told the driver, the actress told me.

I was impressed she did that. Ditto that she rides Boris bikes around London, uses the Tube, and walks from the flat she has owned in Kings Cross for several years into Camden Town.

Danny Boyle role: Rosario Dawson stars in her ex-boyfriend's new film

Danny Boyle role: Rosario Dawson stars in her ex-boyfriend's new gangster movie Trance

She was very much at home when Danny Boyle cast her to play a Harley Street hypnotherapist in his gangster heist movie Trance, which opens next week.

Danny wanted an American; it didnt matter what kind of an American, said Dawson, who stars in the film with James McAvoy and Vincent Cassel.

Everyone had to be from somewhere else, a fish out of water. James is from Scotland, and Vincents from France.

She explained that Boyle had originally wanted to film in New York, but the job of directing the Olympics opening ceremony intervened. Still, if it had shot in Manhattan, Rosarios part would have been played by an English actress.

Her character, Elizabeth Lamb, is a femme fatale with feelings. She does partake in a fabulous nude scene reminiscent of those famous nudes by the great masters that is wholly justified because it provides a clue to the plot.

The whole film completely changes after that scene, she agreed. Danny litters the film wi! th visual! clues.

The painting at the centre of the film is Goyas surreal Witches In The Air, and the artist had a thing about his nudes.

The actress and her director had a fling that has now ended. Rosario was out partying with him and the rest of the cast till four in the morning recently, so shes not exactly in mourning.

A bit nuts: Squirrels in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Squirrels en pointe in the nutcracker suite, cracking walnuts; all-singing, all-dancing Oompa-Loompas direct from Loompaland; a giant cocoa bean and rivers of chocolate.

These are among the extraordinary sights being developed during rehearsals for the musical Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, based on Roald Dahls tale, that is starting previews at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on May 17, a day earlier than previously announced.

Director Sam Mendes, choreographer Peter Darling and their cast led by Douglas Hodge as Willy Wonka have been rehearsing in South London to prepare for the show.

There will be all manner of confectionery on stage but most of it will be props and inedible.

There have been a few adverts for Chocolate Factory but not exactly a full-on campaign. The message must be getting through, though, because it has already sold some 3million worth of tickets.

The show will go into high gear after Easter and, who knows, it may rival the 9million that The Book Of Mormon has taken so far.

The Michael Jackson Thriller Live nonsense has lost its lustre and has to close at the Lyric Theatre in Londons West End. Sally Cooksons and Benji Bowers family show Were Going On A Bear Hunt, with music, puppets, paint and mud, will run at the Lyric for the summer season from July 3.