Daniel Radcliffe in Every Brilliant Thing

Mariska Hargity to Take Over Role in May

By: Karen Isaacs - Apr 03, 2026

 

 

 

 

 

At a time when many dread looking at the headlines to see the latest outrage or atrocity, we need a show like Every Brilliant Thing. As the old-time movie trailers would say, “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry”

We also need Daniel Radcliffe performing this inventive work

On the surface, the show seems simple: an actor on a stage, telling us incidents from his life or rather a character’s life

But it is how it is done and what he is telling us that makes this so special

The script is incredibly flexible. The work can be performed by an actor of any gender, age, or nationality. In fact, when Radcliffe leaves the cast in late May, Mariska Hargitay is taking over the role.

It truly is universal

At a time when audience participation is increasingly common in productions, Every Brilliant Thing uses that device in the most positive way: it does not make audience members uncomfortable or the butt of jokes. It involves them in helping tell the story in the gentlest and most positive way.

Entering the theater, I saw Radcliffe literally sprinting around the theater, talking to audience members. But he was also asking them to help him tell the story. This takes multiple forms. It might be to call out a particular response when he calls for it during the show, or it might be to play a character.

Radcliffe’s character, a seven-year-old, is picked up from school one day by his father; strange because his mother usually does it. He learns that his mother has attempted suicide. To cheer her up, he starts making a list of wonderful, brilliant things. He continues this list throughout his life; eventually, it reaches one million things.

As he is telling the story at the beginning, he calls out the number of the item on the list, and an audience member, including those in the upper reaches, shouts that brilliant thing. Ice cream was number one on the list.

But that’s not the only way the audience is involved; at times, they play actual characters. I’ve checked the script, and they are not told what to say or how to respond in most cases. He truly is responding to whatever they do.

At the performance I saw, two of the audience members were so good. Afterward, I questioned if they were, in fact, actors. But no, they weren’t. That’s why I checked the script.

Radcliffe has the ease with the audience to handle the pre-show interactions, as well as the skill to tell this story, which is rather simplistic and make it interesting and touching

Let’s not go into the details of the story; it might appear too simplistic. Just say it is universal, even though it is very specific to this character; it can be performed by anyone, it is universal. Radcliffe’s boy could be a girl.

It may sound Pollyannish to say that, leaving the theater, you will be thinking of what you would put on a list of every brilliant thing.

On my list would be seeing Daniel Radcliffe perform on a Broadway stage. If you see the show, try to get seats to sit on the stage.