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Coming-of-age stories are becoming increasingly popular for the theater and entertainment world, as they attract a wider audience than most genres. Movies like "Thirteen" and "The Virgin Suicides" fall into that category and didn't fail to garner controversy for depicting teens with drugs and alcohol, or for incorporating the controversial theme of sexuality.
And boy, does sexuality play a big part in the Broadway production of the re-make of "Equus," starring 19-year-old Daniel Radcliffe. If you're scratching your head asking, "Why does this play sound familiar?" it's because it isn't the first time Radcliffe has played this contentious role.
Setting aside the fact that the play already has a rather odd synopsis of a young man who has a pathological and sexual fascination with horses - seriously, how bizarre does that plot sound? - more people are just a bit weirded out by the fact that the role of the young man is played by Mr. Harry Potter himself. The role features live nudity on stage. Yes, full-on nakedness that features some Harry Potter booty - with plenty of front views, too.
When I first heard that Radcliffe was going to appear naked on the original West End production of "Equus" in London, I remember thinking, "Wait, Harry Potter is going to be naked? He can't do that, he's not even old enough. And what about the Potter fans?" For the record, he was 17 and well, some female Potter fans were a tad bit excited.
While in America we were exploiting the fact that he was going to be naked on stage all over "Access Hollywood," ticket sales in London were skyrocketing and Radcliffe was performing sold-out shows. I guess in Great Britain they have more lenient and less Puritanical views on nudity than America - it's part of Europe, so of course they don't freak out about the state of the underdressed like we do. Case in point - the infamous Janet Jackson pop-out during the Super Bowl in 2004. In Europe, America was ridiculed for making such a controversy out of something that was viewed as "nothing to make such a big fuss about," according to Peter Bowes of BBC News.
Besides the fact that such a role exists for a young actor, there most likely wouldn't be this much controversy surrounding Radcliffe if it wasn't for his familiar role of Harry Potter. If it was any other young actor who had already found his niche playing parts that didn't have a wide audience of children, perhaps the controversy wouldn't have been as newsworthy. After all, this isn't the first play on Broadway that features teenagers experimenting with sexuality - "Spring Awakening" is a prime example.
It makes sense that Radcliffe is trying to branch out into more mature and adult-oriented roles. In fact, kudos to him for doing so. Sure, there's a loss of innocence here, but Radcliffe can't hide behind those goofy, circular glasses for the rest of his life. Ultimately, we just seem to forget that actors are actually people, and not the characters they play.
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