When it was announced that Daniel Radcliffe would star in a Broadway production of the one-man play Every Brilliant Thing at the Hudson Theatre, it seemed like a stretch. This intimate show written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe (its original performer) was first seen here in 2014 at the Barrow Street Theatre. The small space perfectly suited the play’s emotional intimacy and the complicity of the many audience members who were recruited to participate in it. How could it possibly work in a venue better suited to musicals, such as the one that provided Radcliffe’s last Broadway appearance, Merrily We Roll Along?
Any doubts were immediately quashed upon entering the venue and encountering the actor working the room with the energy of a Borscht Belt tummler (google it). Running from the stage on which audience members were seated on three sides to the orchestra to the theater’s two upper levels, Radcliffe proved a warm and welcoming host. He displays so much charm, charisma and boundless vivacity that he made the nearly thousand-seat venue feel like a living room. (Of course, it helped to be sitting in theater critic seats as opposed to the balcony).
The 70-minute play, recently presented in London’s West End with various actors including Lenny Henry and Minnie Driver, is a wise and witty examination of crippling depression and the effect it has on family members. Radcliffe plays the unnamed narrator who relates the story of his response to his mother’s suicide attempt when he was seven years old. In a desperate effort to cheer her up, he devises a list of “every brilliant thing” worth living for. Its sweetly childlike nature is signaled by its first three entries: “1. Ice cream. 2. Water fights. 3. Staying up past your bedtime and being allowed to watch TV.”
[Read Steven Suskin’s ★★★★★ review here.]
As the boy grows up, eventually going to university and falling in love and getting married, he continues adding entries to the list which eventually swells to nearly a million. Its items grow increasingly specific and whimsical: “253,263: The feeling of calm which follows the realization that, although you may be in a regrettable situation, there’s nothing you can do about it.” But as he ultimately and sadly learns, his best intentions are not enough to prevent tragedy.
Throughout the brief evening, the audience is fully involved in the proceedings. Before the show begins, Radcliffe hands out pieces of paper to numerous audience members who are later prompted to announce entries from the list. Several others are called upon to play various characters in the piece including a veterinarian with a sad duty, a schoolteacher wielding a sock puppet, and the narrator’s father and lover.
But while the show might have lapsed into twee, the results are far from it. The affable performer manipulates his charges with masterful wit, delivering hilarious ad libs when given the opportunity. Whether exuberantly air drumming to Curtis Mayfield’s recording of “Move On Up” or sadly commenting, “If you live a long life and get to the end of it without once feeling crushingly depressed, then you probably haven’t been paying attention,” Radcliffe has the audience in the palm of his hand. To be sure, the theater’s size proves a detriment at times, with some audience members unintelligible when they shouted out list entries from the further reaches. At one point, Radcliffe amusingly comments on it after attempting to joyously high-five everyone in the crowd and nearly collapsing from the effort. But with the help of a giant disco ball, he does manage to bring everyone to their feet for an impromptu dance party.
By the end of the funny and moving evening, you’ll probably be thinking of your own ideas to add to the list of things for which life is worth living. And right near the top should be Every Brilliant Thing.
Every Brilliant Thing opened March 12, 2026, at the Hudson Theatre and runs through May 24. Tickets and information: everybrilliantthing.com
