{"id":162136,"date":"2026-03-13T05:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T05:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162136\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T05:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T05:22:10","slug":"tony-winner-daniel-radcliffe-stars-in-every-brilliant-thing-on-broadway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162136\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony-Winner Daniel Radcliffe Stars in EVERY BRILLIANT THING on Broadway"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Broadway premiere of Duncan MacMillan<\/a>\u2019s EVERY BRILLIANT THING, starring Tony Award winner Daniel Radcliffe<\/a>\u00a0opens at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre tonight.\u00a0The play marks the first time Radcliffe returns to the stage since his 2024 Tony Award win for his role in the record-breaking run of Merrily We Roll Along. Read the reviews!<\/p>\n

The show is written by Olivier Award nominee Duncan MacMillan<\/a> (People, Places and Things) with Jonny Donahoe<\/a> and directed by Olivier & Tony Award nominee Jeremy Herrin<\/a> (People, Places and Things; Wolf Hall) & Duncan MacMillan<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every Brilliant Thing\u202fis a heartwarming play, in which a man looks back at his life and the glimmers of hope that carried him through. All told through a list of every wonderful, beautiful, and delightful thing\u2014big, small, and everything in between\u2014that makes life worth living. This one-of-a-kind solo show, which has been performed across the globe in over 80 countries on stages of all sizes\u2014and for an HBO Special starring co-creator Jonny Donahoe<\/a>\u2014makes its long-awaited Broadway premiere following a hit season @sohoplace in London\u2019s West End, where it concluded its run on November 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The show will play a limited thirteen-week engagement through May 24, 2026 at The Hudson Theatre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Helen Shaw, The New York Times:<\/a> CRITIC’S PICK – And something more is happening here, too. Radcliffe makes himself extraordinarily available to us \u2014 his fondness for the audience radiates outward from wherever he is onstage. When participants make tiny errors (say, Mrs. Patterson\u2019s joke is a dud), he laughs with unguarded delight. He thanks those yelling out their brilliant things with a courtly nod. Radcliffe doesn\u2019t just do away with the fourth wall, he manages to expand his magical aren\u2019t-people-wonderful optimism to include the whole orchestra, mezzanine and balcony. (His \u201cMerrily\u201d co-star and friend Jonathan Groff achieves a similar area-of-effect spell in \u201cJust in Time.\u201d)<\/p>\n

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\n \"Review
\n Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times:<\/a> Yet launching a conversation around mental health with an audience magnet as powerful as Radcliffe is on balance an excellent thing. And Radcliffe\u2019s compassionate portrayal of a survivor recognizing that he\u2019s not out of the woods just because he made it into adulthood is one of those things that makes a theater lover just a little more appreciative of the humanity at the center of this art form.<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Aramide Timubu, Variety:<\/a> *CRITIC’S PICK* Broadway performances, despite their sensational acting and writing, often follow a certain set of conventions. However, \u201cEvery Brilliant Thing\u201d shatters the format, making it a true breath of fresh air. The difficult topics of depression and suicide are referenced throughout the show\u2019s script. Yet the show is a reminder that amid all the challenges and heartache that life throws at us, there is always something to look forward to, even if it\u2019s just for a little while.
\n \n<\/p>\n

\t
\n \"Review
\n Adam Feldman, Time Out New York:<\/a> But without specificity and motive, one is left with a thickly padded elaboration of an idea that Rodgers and Hammerstein compressed into two and a half minutes in The Sound of Music\u2019s \u201cMy Favorite Things.\u201d Primo tickets for Every Brilliant Thing cost more than $400, and if you don\u2019t mind spending top dollar on a dime-thin show, this one won\u2019t disappoint; it\u2019s diverting and at times even touching. But, appealing though he is, there may be better things on which to spend that money than 70 minutes of Radcliffe doing crowd work. <\/p>\n

\t
\n
\n \"ReviewRobert Hofler, The Wrap:<\/a> Now that \u201cEvery Brilliant Thing\u201d has played Broadway, the show\u2019s next stop should be a Celebrity Cruise. At 75 minutes, it\u2019s the perfect length to fill up that awkward gap between the evening buffet and the floating slot machines.<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Greg Evans, Deadline:<\/a> Radcliffe is costumed (by Vicki Mortimer, who also designed the effective boxing-ring style set) in a purple sweatshirt that, at least during the reviewed performance, he was perspiring through by the show\u2019s half-way point (there is no intermission). And that is the only way he lets us see him sweat, so seemingly easy does he move through all the moods and feels of what must be a taxing endeavor. Every Brilliant Thing is unsparing and clear-eyed in its presentation of the realities of depression and suicide, yet glows with a hopeful, life-affirming aura that convincingly depicts the value of struggle, and the beauty in tenacity.<\/p>\n

\t
\n \"Review
\n Jesse Hassenger, The Guardian:<\/a> Like a lot of Every Brilliant Thing, this trick doubles as a lesson \u2013 in this case, about the power of just listening, in performing and in real life. That alertness keeps the show humming for its single 70-minute act, even as its straight text reads like something a precocious college student might write. Basically, the show works because Radcliffe more or less wills it to. It would be misleading to call his performance a high-wire act, because he intentionally stays closer to the audience\u2019s level. As a medium-wire act, though, it\u2019s still plenty brilliant.<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly:<\/a> It seems almost incongruous to talk about what a great time you will have watching a play centered around depression and suicide, but what Every Brilliant Thing does is create almost a communal support group filled with constant reminders of the things that make life worth living. And with Radcliffe as our guide, this show definitely makes the list. Grade: A\u2013<\/p>\n

\t
\n \"Review
\n Matthew Wexler, One-Minute Critic:<\/a> Despite its weighty subject matter, Radcliffe and the audience mesmerized by him remain buoyant, thanks to improvisation woven throughout. The unpredictability reminds us why we gather in theatres to begin with: a shared lived experience that will never be exactly the same.<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Matt Windman, amNY:<\/a> \u201cEvery Brilliant Thing\u201d confronts serious subject matter \u2014 depression, suicide attempts, and the complicated experience of loving someone who struggles with mental illness \u2014 yet it does so with determined optimism. Over the course of the evening, Radcliffe turns the Hudson Theatre into a kind of temporary community, inviting the audience to contribute their own reminders of life\u2019s small pleasures. The result is a modest but affecting theatrical experience that finds unexpected power in the simple act of paying attention to what makes life worth living.<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Thom Geier, Culture Sauce:<\/a> He\u2019s also never really alone with his thoughts. By this time, he\u2019s not merely implicated the audience in his journey but recruited us to be his companions, his aides-m\u00e9moire to that every-growing list, and his cheering section. How can we not root for Radcliffe as he delivers a tour de force, serotonin-boosting performance that\u2019s as powerful as any drug currently on the market? Every Brilliant Thing is the funniest, most life-affirming show about suicide. It provided so much uplift that I didn\u2019t even mind being called \u201cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n \"Review
\n Austin Fimmano, New York Theatre Guide:<\/a> I left delighted by the experience, albeit wishing the story had more substance. But regardless of whether Macmillan’s approach works for you, Radcliffe will certainly do his damndest to charm you all the while.<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Steven Suskin, New York Stage Review:<\/a> Radcliffe, who has demonstrated increasing power as an actor since his inescapable cinema origins, is so perfect in the role\u2014and so suited to the play\u2014that a spectator might think Every Brilliant Thing built for and molded upon him. Not so. The play began on a small scale, at the Edinburgh Festival in 2013, fashioned by Macmillan around Donahoe, a comedian. The play has since traveled the world, including, notably, a 2014 stint at off-Broadway\u2019s Barrow Street Theatre and an HBO version (both starring Donahoe) as well as a 2025 production at London\u2019s intimate Soho Place with a handful of actors playing short stints in the role (namely Donahoe, Lenny Henry, Ambika Mod, Sue Perkins, and Minnie Driver). So Every Brilliant Thing is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a custom-built vehicle for Radcliffe. That said, his participation has propelled this small play into the Broadway spotlight. Does it work, in a three-tier 1,000-seat proscenium house? Spectacularly so.<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review:<\/a> By the end of the funny and moving evening, you\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Juan A. Ramirez, Theatrely:<\/a> The actor is a revelation, though I guess it shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise that someone who could have retired a multimillionaire at 22 but keeps pushing himself into new challenges really does love what he gets to do for a living. Beside Radcliffe\u2019s magnetic charisma, it\u2019s his palpable joy in the project that shines brightest. There are a few reactions carefully calibrated for maximum fawning, sure, but his demeanor throughout suggests that he, too, is working through the meaning of performance; of engaging strangers through the one-way mirror through which they\u2019ve grown accustomed to seeing him.<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune:<\/a> When you think of all the questionable celebrity casting to be found on Broadway, the choice of Radcliffe for this piece really stands apart. That\u2019s not just reflective of his ticket-moving celebrity and engagingly vulnerable stage presence, although both of those things are true.
\n \n<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Lane Williamson, Exeunt:<\/a> Granted, I was very close to the stage, but it still felt like Herrin, Macmillan, and Radcliffe were able to envelop all 970 of us in this small, personal story. I can\u2019t begin to imagine the logistics required to get each performance going, let alone the infinite hours of pre-production planning. But the result feels effortless, even while appreciating Radcliffe\u2019s mammoth undertaking. It truly feels like we\u2019re all at a party, celebrating life and all the little every day things that make it worth living. It\u2019s a balm in a troubled time, at least for seventy minutes. As the character\u2019s list wrapped up at the end of the night, I thought the real final number should be this production.<\/p>\n

\t
\n \"Review
\n Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater:<\/a> What\u2019s not lost is Radcliffe\u2019s performance. Jonny Donahoe, the co-creator of the show and originator of the role, had experience as a stand-up comedian; he was also a big guy who looks as if he\u2019s about to give you a bear hug. These would not likely be among the top attributes of his Broadway successor in the role. But Daniel Radcliffe is also a witty, energetic and generous host, a cool hand at comedy (as we saw in \u201cFranklin Shepard INC\u201d) and something more. When his character says things like: \u201cIf you got all the way through life without ever being heart crushingly depressed, you probably haven\u2019t been paying attention,\u201d the pain he communicates makes it clear that he\u2019s been paying attention.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Review
\n Johnny Oleksinki, The New York Post:<\/a> It\u2019s Radcliffe\u2019s vitalizing and vulnerable performance, a cardio workout both physically and emotionally, that\u2019s the reason to go. He\u2019s its most brilliant thing. <\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Sara Holdren, Vulture:<\/a> But what about your marriage?! I hear you holler. Well, we met in the college library. He lent me Twilight and I lent him Percy Jackson and the Olympians. (We were into YA, I guess.) He took me to meet his parents, who seemed great \u2014 they played and sang jazz around the piano. His mother was bright and funny and dramatic, though I know that\u2019s only one side of her, and I saw how scared he was for her. I proposed (I know!). People threw confetti at our wedding, and his dad made a wonderful toast. And this is the potential of Every Brilliant Thing: Though it can stray into PSA territory, you can never really resent it because then a shy-seeming, silver-haired stranger stands up and actually starts to cry as he tells you and Daniel Radcliffe how much he loves you and how beautiful you are together. In its essence, it\u2019s a play about presence and attention, about how really noticing the world might just be what saves us.<\/p>\n

\t\"Review
\n
\n Charles Isherwood, The Wall Street Journal:<\/a> Thanks in no small part to the radiant emotional authenticity Mr. Radcliffe brings to the role, the narrative of the protagonist\u2019s life maintains our interest as he matures and himself begins to suffer from a persistent melancholy. As the list of matters that make the slings and arrows of life worth enduring grows into the hundreds of thousands\u2014closing in on a million\u2014I found it harder to give credence to this element of the story. But ultimately the inventive staging, which also includes invigorating bursts of recorded music, from Nina Simone, Ray Charles and Curtis Mayfield (the glorious \u201cMove On Up\u201d), succeeds at the high-wire challenge of blending sincerity and levity in disarming but effective, and affecting, proportions.<\/p>\n

\"Review<\/p>\n

Average Rating:
\n\t\t79.0%<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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