Alec Baldwin stars in '70s drama 'Equus' in East Hampton

"I've wanted to do this for a long time," says Alec Baldwin, who's playing Dr. Dysart in the 1970s drama about a stable boy who blinds six horses with a spike to the eye, and the psychiatrist who treats him. "They asked me what I wanted to do and I said, 'Equus,' "

Tony Walton, who's directing the play at East Hampton's John Drew Theater at Guild Hall, remembers the moment differently. "Alec said, 'I want to play the doctor in that horse play.' "

The principals in the premiere of the revised version of "Equus" took timeout from rehearsal Monday to answer questions about the production.

Peter Shaffer, the author, who has rewritten portions of the drama, agreed with Baldwin and Walton that the project would have been impossible without the right young thespian to play Alan Strang, the teenager whose sexual urges lead him to confuse horses with all-seeing gods. Happily, Walton had just cast Sam Underwood, an intense British stage actor of the right age, in "Candide" Off-Broadway.

Asked if he was intimidated by following a certain wizard in the "Equus" role - Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe played Alan Strang in the 2007-09 London and Broadway revivals - Underwood said confidently, without being cocky, "Not in the slightest. . . . If Peter Firth [who originated the role in 1973] turned up, well . . . "

"Equus" runs June 8 through July 3.