Review: Daniel Radcliffe goes interactive for Every Brilliant Thing on Broadway

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NEW YORK — What makes life worth living? For hard-core “Harry Potter” fans with money to burn, it might be getting Broadway tickets to interact fleetingly with Daniel Radcliffe in “Every Brilliant Thing,” an ingenious and touching solo performance piece written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe on the subject of suicide — or more precisely, on the ordinary joys that militate against such a drastic step.Radcliffe was breathlessly scampering up and down the aisles of the Hudson Theatre before the show began, enlisting audience members to be participants in the play.Having seen “Every Brilliant Thing” twice before, once at the Edye (the black box at Santa Monica’s BroadStage) starring Donahoe in 2017 and once at the Geffen Playhouse’s intimate Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater starring Daniel K.

Isaac in 2023, I knew exactly what he was up to.The play revolves around a list that the narrator began at the tender age of 7 after his mother first attempted suicide.While she was still in the hospital, he started compiling, as much for her benefit as for his own, sources of everyday happiness.Ice cream, water fights, kind people who aren’t weird and don’t smell unusual.

These items are given a number, and audience members assigned a particular “brilliant thing” are expected to shout out their entry when their number is called.The list gradually grows in complexity as the narrator gets older.

Miss Piggy, spaghetti bolognese and wearing a cape give way to more sophisticated pleasures, such as the way Ray Charles sings the word “You” in the song “Drown in My Own Tears” or the satisfaction in writing about yourself in the second person.Music plays a prominent role in “Every Brilliant Thing,” which was adapted from a monologue/short story Macmillan wrote called “Sleeve Notes.” The narrator’s terribly British father takes refuge from the emoti...