Mar 14, 2026
3 min read
Daniel Radcliffe stars in the Broadway premiere of Every Brilliant Thing, an interactive performance written by Duncan McMillan and Johnny Donahoe that meditates on what makes life worth living.
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NEW YORK — What makes life worthwhile?For "Harry Potter" fans who have money to burn, they may get Broadway tickets to interact with Daniel Radcliffe in "Every Brilliant Thing," a solo and exciting play written by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe on the subject of suicide - or better, on the common parts that fight.
Radcliffe ran breathlessly up and down the aisles of the Hudson Theater before the show began, recruiting participants for the play.I've seen "Every Brilliant Thing" twice before, once at the Eddie (the black box at Santa Monica's BroadStage) starring Donahue in 2017 and once at Geffen Playhouse's intimate Audrey Skirball Kennis Theater starring Daniel K.Isaac in 2023, I know exactly what he's doing.
The play revolves around the list the narrator starts at the age of 7 after his mother tries to commit suicide.While she is in the hospital, he begins to compile sources of daily happiness for his own purposes.
Ice cream, water fights, friendly people, nothing weird and nothing smells funny. Items are assigned a number, and audience members who are assigned a specific "something awesome" shout out their entry when their number is called.
The list gradually becomes more complex as the author ages.Missing Piggy, the spaghetti bolognese and the hat gives access to more pleasures, like the way Ray Charles sang the word "You" in the song "Drowning in My Tears" or the satisfaction of writing about yourself in the second person.
Music plays an important role in "Every Brilliant Thing," adapted from a monologue/story McMillan wrote called "Sleeve Notes."The narrator's terribly British father takes refuge from the family's emotional storm by listening to jazz records in his study.John Coltrane, Cab Calloway, Bill Evans, and Nina Simone are favorite artists, and the narrator can capture his father's humor.Only with the record did he decide to play.
Directed by Jeremy Herrin and McMillan, the production spans all levels of the Hudson Theatre.During the press screening, which was attended by critics, I thought I would be safe in my seat in the expensive top orchestra.But I didn't show my cushions to avoid any attack from my partner next to me.Just before the show started, Radcliffe suddenly asked if the person kneeling next to my seat was my partner.
I told him we weren't a couple, just friends, and I would be the worst person he could ask to do anything.But Radcliffe is not easily influenced.“Let's say you're an elderly couple who've been together for a while,” he whispered.
Okay, what's the harm?I had no idea that "old couple" was "old couple" - a word that seemed to repeat itself over and over again, at least to my Gen X ears that weren't used to the onslaught of millennials!I pulled myself together, pretending we were in an anti-reality world.But really, I'd like to be the kind of person to give a worried kid a juice box and a candy bar in the hospital waiting room, so maybe the prank wasn't so far off.
A theater lover is invited to play the role of a veterinarian who euthanizes the narrator's childhood pet, a dog named Indiana Bones, symbolized by a coat volunteered by someone in the audience.This was the boy's first experience of death, a difficult concept for a young soul, but an important sign for a boy who was not given the luxury of existential innocence.
Other members of the audience, especially those on stage, played much more sophisticated roles.The man who was first invited to play the role of the narrator's father was asked to play the boy in his place.He had one word to say in response: "Why?"- As the father tried to explain the reason for his mother's stay in the hospital.The same draft actor was later called upon to play the role of a father giving a toast at his son's wedding; it was one of the rare occasions when he was able to use language to express such deep emotion that he usually only expressed through his notes.
A kind and patient audience member recruited to play the school counselor had to take off her shoes to make a sock puppet as one of her empathy training tools.Another audience member played Sam, the love of his life, sensitively in his life story, which shows the long-term relationship fostered by a parent suffering from suicidal depression.
Radcliffe's audience banter was as intuitively sharp as his deep sense of performance.He has a good political position that he sells, not afraid to connect directly with the crowd.Two-time Tony winner Donna Murphy, at home in the critically-acclaimed show, played a role as Radcliffe summed up her brilliant performances.
The main reason Everything's Bright is on Broadway is clearly Radcliffe.The show, which opened at Britain's Ludlow Fringe Festival in 2013, is a grimy 70-minute piece best experienced at close quarters, without the high expectations and ridiculous prices of New York's turbocharged commercial theatre.excited
One look at Radcliffe's face, a battle of accessible genius in jeans and a shirt, zipping up and down the cavernous theater as if waging a one-man war against a lonely plague.We do not deny that Harry Potter is a mature stage actor.His Tony-winning performance in "Merrily We Roll Along" should clear up some doubts, but the brightness of his fame can still hide serious details.
Sincere yet never cruel, never cruel without irony, well-dressed, he is a more interesting version of the character originated by the British comedian Donahoe, whose every behavior seems so real that I mistakenly thought the play was his personal story.
Donahoe's performance was taped for HBO, but "Every Brilliant Thing" is meant to be experienced in a theater.The whole point of the show is to turn the audience into a spontaneous collective, a group of strangers emotionally united by the story of a young man's intimate knowledge of suicide, which Albert Camus called "a truly serious philosophical problem".
I'm still undecided about "Everything That's Brilliant."Again, I was touched by this article, but I'm grateful that I didn't have to wreak havoc on my credit card to pay for the seats.I love the interactivity, the subtle humanity of the play, but I was very aware of the work that went into the product.I applaud Radcliffe's willingness to forge an independent path as an actor, but perhaps I would have been more impressed by his adventurousness if he had chosen to perform instead of the pocket he didn't have.I associate the price level with airlines.
Still, starting a conversation about mental health with a powerful audience magnet like Radcliffe is a great thing.And Radcliffe's sympathetic portrait of a survivor who admits he's not out of the woods just because he's grown up is one of those things that makes theatergoers appreciate the humanity at the heart of this art form just a little more.
